HSE posts to be re-evaluated

After an eight-year pay freeze, the roles of hundreds of health service staff are to be re-evaluated to establish whether their posts should be upgraded and salaries increased.

The HSE job evaluation scheme was suspended in 2008 due to the economic crash. The performance of staff is not examined under the scheme, but rather the skills and responsibilities required of a particular post. An appointment to an upgraded post is treated as a promotion and salaries rise.

The evaluation process, negotiated by Impact trade union, currently applies to clerical and administrative grades three to six.

However, Impact said it is capable of being applied to more senior administrative and management grades as well as professional and technical staff. The union will be seeking to negotiate an extension to the scheme.

“The eight-year suspension of the scheme has led to a significant backlog of existing and potential applications,” said an Impact spokesman.

“Management has agreed to give priority to applications that were in the system at the time the scheme closed, applications which were referred to job evaluation by a third party process [such as the Labour Court] and applications which were referred to job evaluation through the process of regularising long-term acting positions.”

Those alone would cover the roles of 500 staff. The evaluation awards a post a total number of points based on skills, responsibilities, qualifications, and other requirements necessary to carry out that specific job.

“Each grade in the structure has its own points range, and the evaluated job is matched to the correct grade,” the spokesman said. “Some job evaluations will result in no upgrading. Where upgradings occur, they will most commonly move a job up one grade. But it is possible to move it up two grades if the points are sufficient.”

The union points out that, as well as a salary increase, the upgrading of a post could see the post holder working longer hours or having less leave.