MANAGEMENT and staff at University College Hospital, Galway, yesterday agreed to a Labour Court settlement formula in a dispute over privatisation of catering services.
The deal means that while the planned contracting out of catering services will go ahead, the Western Health Board will freeze further privatisation of services at the hospital for three years.
More than 320 non medical staff have already staged three days of work stoppages and were due to start a further two day strike today. An all out strike by 700 SIPTU workers was being planned for next month.
SIPTU claimed the contracting out of catering facilities would lead to people with long years of service having to apply to private contractors to get their own jobs back, possibly at greatly reduced pay rates.
Both sides attended a hearing of the Labour Court last Friday, and yesterday the court recommended that SIPTU accept the privatisation move and that the hospital should not contract out any other service before the end of 1999.
The court also recommended that all existing full time and temporary staff in the catering section work alongside the private contractor and remain in the employ of the Western Health Board on the same pay and conditions.
It further proposed that all temporary staff with a minimum of one year's service in the hospital compete internally for an agreed number of full time posts.