Public service union protests against recruitment freeze in health service

On 1 May 2008, over 28,000 members of the Irish Municipal Public and Civil Trade Union launched a gradual and sustained campaign of industrial action against recruitment restrictions imposed by the Health Service Executive (HSE). As part of the action, trade union members employed by the HSE are refusing to cover posts left vacant by the recruitment freeze, as well as stopping non-emergency overtime and out-of-hours work.

Since the start of May 2008, the Irish Municipal Public and Civil Trade Union (IMPACT) has been resisting recruitment restrictions in the health service, which have resulted in 2,700 jobs not being filled. The move is part of a major campaign, backed by what the trade union’s National Secretary for health and welfare, Kevin Callinan, described as ‘the biggest ever ballot by IMPACT’ for industrial action. The union has instructed its 28,000 members employed by the Health Service Executive (Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhíse Sláinte, HSE) to refuse to cover posts left vacant by the recruitment freeze, which has been in place since 4 September 2007.

Details of industrial action

The industrial action is part of a wider IMPACT campaign to defend and improve public health services. Mr Callinan insisted that the dispute was not about money but about protecting public health services. The trade union says that the action will have an immediate and serious effect on the functioning of the HSE.

The workers engaging in the action include health professionals, therapists, social care workers, administrative and managerial staff. As part of the action, they will be withholding cooperation with the HSE reforms and stopping non-emergency overtime and out-of-hours work. The trade union also announced plans to hold a lunchtime stoppage on 11 June 2008.

In addition, IMPACT is demanding that about 40 collective agreements/third party settlements be put in place, which it claims the HSE has failed to implement. The full scope of the various ‘non-cooperation’ action will entail a range of measures whereby IMPACT members among HSE staff will:

• refuse to undertake the tasks, functions or responsibilities of posts left vacant by the recruitment freeze;

• strictly adhere to the rules and procedures governing their post – in other words, stage a ‘work to rule’;

• only operate agreed reporting relationships for their post;

• refuse to work overtime or outside of normal work hours, except in emergencies;

• refuse to engage with HSE advisors;

• refuse to participate in, or cooperate with, the HSE transformation programme;

• refuse to engage in ‘partnership’ activities.

Bargaining on public service modernisation

Meanwhile, IMPACT claims that it will develop its own proposals to ‘inform the union’s approach to future negotiations on public service modernisation’. The trade union believes that the last two national social partnership agreements – [Sustaining Progress 2003–2005 (513Kb PDF)](http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/Pdf files/SustainingProgressSocialPartnershipAgreement2003-2005.pdf) and [Towards 2016 (2.86Mb PDF)](http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/Pdf files/Towards2016PartnershipAgreement.pdf) – have forced public servants to accept workplace changes in exchange for pay rises.

IMPACT’s General Secretary, Peter McLoone, argues that most management initiatives have focused too much on internal organisation – a tendency which he says has resulted in little real change for customers trying to access public services. He added:

This is because government and management-led modernisation programmes have focused on attacking working conditions and introducing private provision, rather than improving public services or responding to the real needs and experiences of the people who depend on them.

In view of this, IMPACT says it will be pushing for ‘bargaining on the nature of modernisation programmes, rather than simply negotiating about the implementation of plans’. The trade union claims that this approach is not unique in Europe, citing the example of Norwegian trade unions, which, it states, put forward detailed proposals ‘which have been largely adopted as official policy’.

Rumours of redundancy plan rejected

In a separate but related development, the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, denied on 15 May that a voluntary redundancy programme had already been prepared providing for 1,000 job cuts at senior managerial and administrative levels. Minister Harney insisted that such a plan was ‘not imminent’, adding that it was ‘far too early to speculate about what might happen, what the costs might be on a once-off basis and what the ongoing savings might be if we were to reduce the cost of administration and management and divert that resource to clinical sources’. However, in a debate in the Irish parliament (Dáil) in March, the Minister contradicted herself by proposing a ‘bold and innovative’ redundancy programme for the HSE.

The only previous large-scale voluntary public service redundancy programme in the country occurred in the period 1988–1989 and resulted in the exodus of over 20,000 staff across the entire public sector. The government of 1987–1989 had failed to limit the number of job departures to its original target of just 10,000 jobs. Given that unemployment in Ireland was over 17% at that time – compared with about 5% today – it is likely that any future package will attract considerable interest if its terms are sufficiently attractive.

Brian Sheehan, IRN Publishing