Health service trade unions have described talks today on the HSE’s voluntary redundancy and early retirement scheme as disappointing”.
Speaking after three hours of discussions at the Labour Relations Commission in Dublin today, Impact national secretary Louise O’Donnell said HSE management had refused to allow the terms of the schemes to be referred to the Labour Court.
She also said management had been unable to answer simple questions about the entitlements of staff under the schemes.
Siptu’s Paul Bell said the Department of Finance had made quite clear at the talks that “the package was the package and there could be no further negotiations on it”.
Mr Bell described the talks as “unproductive”, with the exception of discussions on the back-filling of posts left vacant by staff who leave under the schemes.
He said management had given a commitment that they would abide by the terms oft the Croke Park agreement on this issue.
The executive’s head of corporate employee relations Brian Kirwan confirmed after the talks that management was not agreeable to refer the terms of the scheme to the Labour Court. “This is a Government scheme, we are dictated, and we can only implement that package” he said.
The parties are to meet again to discuss clarification of terms on Wednesday.
They will hold further discussions next Monday on the HSE’s contingency proposals for maintaining services if up to 5,000 staff leave under the schemes.
Mr Kirwan said that up to last Friday, there had been over 7,000 expressions of interest from staff.
Under the rules of schemes, staff have until November 19th to apply and must confirm they want to leave by the end of the month. All staff taking the package must leave the HSE by December 30th.
