HSE cutbacks breached terms of national agreement, says Labour Court

The HSE failed the terms of Towards 2016 national agreement by failing to consult employees prior to the implementation of recruitment cutbacks, the Labour Court has ruled today.

The dispute arose from the introduction by the HSE, in September 2007, of cutbacks in the health services known as the 'Financial Break-Even Plan'.

Submissions were presented to the Labour Court by the Health Service Unions including the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO).

IMO director of industrial relations Fintan Hourihan said: “The submissions demonstrated that the cutbacks were having profound consequences for the overall quality and effectiveness of health service delivery and for patient outcomes.

“The submissions included research carried out by the Irish Medical Organisation following the IMO - HSE Cutbacks Campaign.

“This campaign highlighted many examples of how the cutbacks were affecting patient care and how the failure to provide provisions for annual/sick leave were causing chaotic situations for those required to manage frontline service and provide patient care.”

Mr Hourihan also welcomed the court's recognition that it “has no doubt that the initiatives giving rise to this dispute did have a significant effect on staff”.

The Labour Court also recognised that the unilateral move on the part of the HSE “had the effect of reducing the number of staff available to provide a service to patients and this, in turn, placed available staff under additional pressure”.

The president of the IMO, Dr Paula Gilvarry, welcoming the ruling said: “All the indications are that 2008 is going to be far more difficult than 2007.

“Already the HSE has issued a new circular stating that vacancies caused by the recruitment embargo last September will not be filled. It has stated that medical appointments can only be made on a cost-neutral basis which effectively means that other vacancies will be created every time an additional appointment of a doctor is sanctioned.

“The IMO has repeated its call for appropriate funding to be made available to meet the demands being placed on the health services and to avoid the rationing of services as is widely feared will be the consequence of a failure to provide adequate funding.”