RETIREMENTS:A SUBSTANTIAL number of senior HSE managers who are leaving under the Government's early retirement and voluntary redundancy schemes will be taken back on a consultancy basis in the new year, Siptu has claimed.
The HSE has strongly denied that anyone leaving under the schemes will be re-employed.
However, Siptu health division organiser Paul Bell said he had been informed by highly placed figures in the HSE that a substantial number of senior managers will have to be brought back to avoid disruption to services.
He said that if senior managers are to be brought back on a contract basis, he would be questioning whether the schemes put forward by the Government represented a genuine redundancy arrangement.
Mr Bell also maintained that the provision of catering services in some HSE facilities could be hit after Christmas as a result of a high number of catering staff leaving under the packages.
It is understood that more than 70 out of some 700 chefs employed by the HSE around the country have applied to leave.
Mr Bell said Siptu would not agree to the outsourcing of catering services to fill any gaps.
