Health union threatens protest action over staff cuts and non-filling of vacant posts

The Irish Municipal Public and Civil Trade Union (IMPACT) has served notice of industrial action in protest against the prospect of redundancies, recruitment restrictions and the non-implementation of agreements across the entire health service. The government is putting pressure on the Health Service Executive (HSE) to rationalise the organisation in order to improve public health services. Meanwhile, the HSE is calling on IMPACT to engage in dialogue.

Proposed industrial action by over 28,000 Irish Municipal Public and Civil Trade Union (IMPACT) members in the health service nationwide is due to commence on 21 May 2008. The planned protest is in reaction to possible staff cuts and the non-filling of vacant posts. The trade union, which is the largest public sector union, held its biennial conference this year on 14–16 May; therefore, the potential dispute was set to be at the top of its agenda.

IMPACT has declared that the threatened action reflects ‘pressure from below’, with the push for a strong stand by the trade union coming from its members. However, the Health Service Executive (HSE) has insisted that no embargo exists on recruitment and that there are, in fact, ‘arrangements in place to enable posts to be filled’.

Variety of protest measures

The threatened industrial action includes a range of strategies that would affect the health service through the following different measures:

• a refusal to undertake duties associated with vacant posts;

• a boycott of requests and directives from senior HSE corporate management;

• a refusal to deal with HSE advisors;

• a refusal to cooperate with the HSE Transformation Programme 2007–2010 (1Mb PDF) or related matters;

• a withdrawal from partnership groups and processes;

• a work to rule;

• an overtime ban;

• work stoppages;

• other forms of industrial action up to and including strike action.

The trade union explains that its intention would be to target HSE management and minimise disruption of patient services. IMPACT wants to secure:

• the removal of the current recruitment restrictions;

• the permanent filling of posts, except in specific cases where it has been formally agreed not to fill posts;

• an end to the use of temporary work agency staff unless by agreement with IMPACT;

• respect for existing agreements and conditions of employment;

• implementation of all outstanding third party outcomes, such as those of the Labour Court.

Innovative redundancy programme suggested

In a parliamentary (Dáil) debate in March 2008 on the state of the health service, the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, proposed a ‘bold and innovative’ redundancy programme for the HSE. Minister Harney stated:

I repeat what I have said publicly and to [HSE Chief Executive Officer] Professor Drumm. If people in areas of administration or management are superfluous to requirements and there are shortages elsewhere, we should take a bold and innovative approach and consider introducing a redundancy programme.

The minister added that ‘the HSE must be organised appropriately in terms of deployment. This is particularly important in the labour intensive area of health where more staff are always needed in frontline services.’

Responding to subsequent press reports that up to 1,000 voluntary redundancies in administration and management were being considered, the IMPACT National Secretary for Health and Welfare, Kevin Callinan, completely rejected the view that further staffing restrictions would lead to better services:

The recruitment freeze is already hitting services from cancer care to suicide prevention and the HSE says it wants to extend service availability into evenings and weekends. Talk of redundancy has nothing to do with better services; it’s simply about cutting expenditure.

HSE rejects union threat

The HSE described the IMPACT threat as ‘entirely regrettable’ and argued that it is required to deliver health services ‘within the financial resources provided by the government for 2008’. National Director of Human Resources with the HSE, Martin McDonald, admitted:

This poses many challenges, not least of which is to ensure that resources are targeted at frontline services. The threat of industrial action, which is outlawed under the current national agreement, Towards 2016 (2.86Mb PDF), is the cause of unnecessary concern and worry to those who avail of both community and hospital services.

He called on IMPACT to withdraw the threat of industrial action and invited the trade union to engage in dialogue ‘with a view to agreeing measures which can be implemented to ensure the health service lives within its budget in 2008’.

The HSE insisted that ‘well-established procedures’ are in place, both within the HSE and as part of the state’s industrial relations’ machinery, to deal with grievances. Most observers believe that the trade union’s threat was aimed to coincide with its biennial conference, in order to maximise publicity surrounding its various complaints.

Brian Sheehan, IRN Publishing