HSE jobs ‘pause’ leaves 1,000 workers in limbo

AS MANY as 1,000 people offered jobs in key areas of the health service, including child protection, remain without a start date because of a “pause” in recruitment which the HSE has confirmed will last to the end of the year.

This includes workers supposedly exempted from the HSE’s hiring freeze including therapy grades, social workers and hospital consultants. These workers are being brought through the HSE’s recruitment process up to appointment stage, but are not given a start date or an employment contract.

The “pause” has been in force for over three months, during which time IMPACT, the trade union representing many of the workers, has repeatedly asked the Government to clarify its position on these supposedly protected posts.

Louise O’Donnell, the national secretary of IMPACT’s health and welfare division, said the HSE was effectively bringing successful job candidates “to the finishing line, but not getting them over it to sign the contract”.

“It’s unfair on people, to have them handing in their notice after receiving a job offer and then to leave them hanging. It’s also going to cost the system good people because they will go elsewhere,” said Ms O’Donnell.

Ineke Durville, president of the Irish Association of Social Workers, said some of their members had actually been given a start date and left jobs only to find themselves unable to start work with the HSE.

“It’s very difficult. There is huge confusion out there. Some jobs are being prioritised over others. One of our members was offered a job which she was then told she couldn’t start while at the same time she was getting offers of jobs from the HSE in other parts of the country.”

As recently as last week, Ms O’Donnell received a letter from Darragh Scully, private secretary to Health Minister James Reilly, stating that the situation was “still under review”. The HSE confirmed yesterday that the “pause” will remain in place until year end.

Ms O’Donnell said the HSE was effectively engaged in a “smoke and mirrors” exercise by claiming that certain key posts were exempt from the moratorium while at the same time failing to fill these posts.

One social worker with a decade of experience told the Irish Examiner he was offered a job last June. The HSE’s national recruitment service wrote to him and asked him to confirm acceptance of the job offer by the end of the month, which he did. He was subsequently told all posts had been put on hold by the HSE management team and that they could not offer a contract at this time.

Ms O’Donnell also asked if the HSE had actually filled the 200 social worker posts they claimed to recruit last year to help strengthen child protection services. These posts were promised by the Government on foot of the Ryan report on institutional abuse.

“They’ll argue they recruited 200 last year, but technically, they are using many existing staff who may for example transfer to a post closer to home. The actual number of new people is nowhere near what they are saying. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors going on.”

Ms Durville agreed it was “kind of like” re-arranging chairs on the Titanic.