Is the tax-payer shelling out too much to sustain social partnership?

SOME people are going to be paid a lot of extra money for what, to most outsiders, will seem as the same amount of work.

Yesterday, it was reported that radiographers, radiation therapists, clinical specialists and radiography service managers in hospitals are to be paid an additional allowance of €1,800 every year. They are getting this boost in their pay packets for agreeing that radiography units at hospitals will open from 8am until 6pm rather than the current hours of 9am to 5pm.

They are not being paid this extra money because they are doing any extra work — the normal working week of each individual radiographer or radiation therapist will stay the same. They are getting this pay-out because some of them will be rostered to start and go home an hour earlier and others will be rostered to start and finish an hour later.