LRC intervenes in health service dispute

The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) has today invited representatives from both the trade union IMPACT and the HSE to a meeting aimed at resolving the ongoing dispute in the health service.

Members of Impact have been engaged in industrial action since May in protest at recruitment restrictions in the health service which it claims have so far left 2,700 jobs unfilled.

Health workers have stopped co-operation with Health Service Executive (HSE) advisors, blocked non-emergency overtime and out-of-hours work, and have also halted co-operation with the HSE's 'transformation programme'.

Since June 9th, the action was escalated to a withdrawal of co-operation with reporting procedures.

Impact, which represents some 28,000 healthcare workers, has been in talks with the HSE since June in a bid to resolve the dispute, however, national secretary Kevin Callinan said today that it believes that little progress has been made in restoring posts lost during the recruitment freeze, which was introduced last year.

"Impact welcomes the opportunity to engage fully in a process aimed at solving the current difficulties," said Mr Callinan this morning.

"Our members, which include professionals and therapists, social care workers, administrative and managerial staff, are committed to sustaining the current action until tangible results are achieved. The delivery of services to communities around the country continues to be undermined by the loss of more than 2,700 posts since the HSE-imposed freeze last year," he added.

Impact claims that the recruitment restrictions have also delayed the implementation of promised improvements in areas like primary care, disability services, mental health services and care for older people.

The HSE also welcomed the invitation from the LRC to engage in talks with Impact and said it looked forward to a positive outcome for both parties.

Sean McGrath, director of HR with the HSE said the organisation was focused on delivering a high quality health service but that it had to achieve this within a defined budgetary framework. He added that new employees had been taken on by the executive since January.

"We are continuing to employ staff and continuing to develop our services. To date this year we have employed over 2000 new staff, with the vast majority of  these engaged in frontline services in our hospitals and across the services - in areas such as mental health, disabilities and primary care," said Mr McGrath.