THE GOVERNMENT is unlikely to sanction proposals for pay increases of up to 5.5 per cent for top-level managers in the health service, sources said last night.
The Department of Health had told the Department of Finance that national directors and assistant national directors in the Health Service Executive did not receive increases recommended by the review body on top-level pay in the public service in 2007.
It stated that increases for some national directors would be capped at 5 per cent and for others at 5.5 per cent. It also states that assistant national directors could receive rises of 2.3 per cent.
However, Government sources signalled last night that the increases were unlikely to be approved in the wake of the controversy surrounding the U-turn on the extent of pay cuts to be applied to top-level staff in the HSE.
The staff concerned were among those who benefited from the controversial decision by the Department of Finance just before Christmas to reduce the level of pay cuts announced in the budget to take account of the abolition of a performance bonus scheme.
Meanwhile, health sector trade unions yesterday considered proposals for escalating the industrial action over pay cuts. The options considered included the introduction of an overtime ban or rolling work stoppages.
Impact general secretary Kevin Callinan said last night that they recognised that there was a need for a second phase of the campaign.
He declined to comment on the outcome of the meeting.
The health unions’ proposals will feed into discussions held on Monday involving unions representing staff in all the various parts of the public service.
The Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) said that it did not favour the introduction of an overtime ban at this stage. General secretary Des Kavanagh said some parts of the mental health services were substantially reliant on overtime to maintain services. He said in some cases a ban on overtime would represent “the nuclear option”.
He said if the campaign was to have three phases, he would prefer that an overtime ban was in the final stage. However, he said that if an overtime ban was the consensus among the other unions the PNA would go along with it.