Public health doctors strike ends after pay deal

Ireland’s public health doctors returned to work in June 2003, after 10 weeks on strike, when the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the Health Service Employers Agency (HSEA) decided to accept pay and restructuring proposals brokered by the Labour Relations Commission and the ad hoc Public Service Adjudication Board.

On 20 June 2003, Ireland’s 270 public health doctors, represented by the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), returned to work after a 10-week strike over a demand for concrete proposals from their employers in relation to improved pay, status, and terms and conditions of employment (IE0305203F). During this time, the dispute became increasingly bitter, as the parties’ positions remained polarised. However, the dispute has now been resolved by a 'return to work formula' accepted by IMO and the Health Service Employers Agency (HSEA). This formula is based on a complex set of proposals brokered by the Labour Relations Commission (LRC), under which pay increases due under the local pay bargaining clauses of previous national agreements and the implementation of the Brennan Review of public health (this review was established to examine the future of public health structures, and its report was published in April 2002), were referred to the Public Service Adjudication Board.

The Adjudication Board operates on an ad hoc basis, and was originally established to resolve disputes under the restructuring clause of Ireland's 1994-6 national agreement, the Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW) (IE9812266F). It is chaired by a barrister, Gerard Durcan, and also comprises Derek Hunter, formerly of the Local Government Management Services Board (LGMSB), and Tom Wall, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) assistant general secretary. The main recommendations of the Board are outlined below.

Payments due to the public health doctors under the local bargaining clauses of the PCW were referred to the Adjudication Board. The Board decided that public health directors and specialists should receive an 11% pay increase backdated to July 1997, with a further 2% pay rise backdated to July 1999. Senior area medical officers (SAMOs) and area medical officers (AMOs) are to receive an 8.5% increase backdated to July 1997, and a further 2% increase from July 1999, as well as two long-service increments valued at EUR 1,250 each, and backdated to July 1997. After three years on top of their scale, medical officers will be given their first long-service increment, and a second long-service increment will be awarded three years after that. A continued medical education grant of EUR 1,500, previously valued at IEP 500, is also to be given to public health doctors.

The health service employers welcomed these proposals, considering them a 'balanced adjudication' that preserves the integrity of the current public service 'benchmarking' process (IE0207203N). IMO also said that it was happy with the back to work formula, and after deliberating on the issues, its public health committee advised the 270 public health doctors to accept the proposals. A ballot of the doctors was due to be completed by 4 July.

Now that a solution has seemingly been achieved on the issues referred to the Adjudication Board, the path is clear for additional proposals by the LRC to be dealt with, relating to other aspects of the doctors’ claim. To this end, the parties have agreed to enter into immediate discussions with a view to agreeing an interim structured 'out of hours' service for public health doctors. These discussions are to be concluded not later than 30 September 2003. The doctors’ have been unhappy about the unstructured and ad hoc nature of the emergency/on-call system, and are seeking a more formally structured set-up.

In the longer term, the parties have agreed to the LRC proposal that IMO's claim for consultant status and remuneration for senior public health doctors will be referred to the next Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Service. It has also been agreed that the Review Body will address the linked issue of a formally structured out of hours cover arrangement. This Body is the established forum for determining the remuneration of senior level posts in Health Boards, including hospital consultants.