Unions and the Opposition have today criticised the detail and timing of a €400 million voluntary redundancy and early retirement scheme for Health Service Executive (HSE) staff that the Government announced today.
The programme is aimed at the main administrative and management grades, and some support personnel may be included in the scheme, which will be offered to some 28,000 staff. Up to 5,000 employees are set to leave the HSE under the process.
Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said the announcement came "two years and €400 million too late".
"The introduction of these schemes was under consideration two years ago, but we are only now getting action," he said.
"By Minister Harney’s own admission, €400 million could have been saved in the intervening years but, instead, the Minister's focus has been on withdrawing badly needed frontline services," Dr Reilly said.
"Now we have a panicked Government causing chaos in the health service as workers are left with less than three weeks to decide on their future and that of their families, with Christmas fast approaching."
"There is no clear plan of provision as to how the services would be reorganised to cope with the sudden loss of 5,000 staff including support staff. Extraordinarily, there is no mention of reducing staff numbers within the Minister's own Department," Dr Reilly said.
Speaking after a briefing by HSE management this morning, Siptu vice president Patricia King said staff had until November 19th to apply for the scheme, would have to give irrevocable confirmation they were taking it by November 30th and would have to leave the HSE by the end of the year.
Ms King said she had a "huge concern" the HSE appeared to have "no plan at all" from January 1st, 2011. "If you take between 4,000 and 5,000 posts out of the system and you have no plans for dealing with the consequences, then this is a very worrying scenario," she said.
Acting head of Siptu's health division Paul Bell said: "It is another black day for the health service. . . . There is no provision for the hole that will be left in the service when these people have departed. Siptu will not accept the backfilling of the service by contract or agency staff."
The Impact trade union said it would seek a better financial package for HSE staff who accepted voluntary redundancy and wanted assurances the consequences of reduced staff numbers would be properly handled through the Croke Park agreement.
The union also claimed the timetable set out by the HSE breached statutory requirements for notice periods in collective redundancy situations.
Impact national secretary for health Louise O’Donnell said: "We need the HSE to clarify what existing work and tasks are being taken out of the system, and we want guarantees that any subsequent staff redeployment will be managed under the terms of Croke Park."
Under proposals drawn up by the Department of Health, the Department of Finance and HSE management, staff will be offered redundancy terms of three weeks’ pay per year of service which would be capped at two years’ salary, it is understood.
Staff taking the offer would be entitled to statutory redundancy arrangements in addition. These involve the payment of two weeks’ pay for every year of service plus one further week. The amount of statutory redundancy is subject to a maximum earnings limit of €600 per week.
There are about 17,000 staff in clerical and administrative grades in the organisation.