Unions have reacted outraged at proposals by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to increase working time by two hours per week and pay over hours at flat pay rates in order to address the health service’s deficit. Trade union SIPTU stated that the proposals violate the Croke Park agreement and that it will begin to ballot its members for industrial action. Earlier this month, the Croke Park implementation body denied a request from the hospital consultants’ association for an extended time frame for negotiations with the HSE. The HSE said earlier that if the issues failed to be resolved between the two parties shortly, it will refer the conflict to the Labour Court. The HSE wishes to address a lower entry pay and the elimination of the so-called historic leave, under which several hundred consultants are entitled to a final year off as a compensation for past over time. Also home helps are in conflict with the HSE, whom they accuse of not implementing a 2009 agreement.
English: http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0724/ihca-bid-to-extend-time-frame ...
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0726/hse-health.html
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0813/home-help-hse.html
Focus on the Croke Park agreement: http://www.impact.ie/Croke-Park-Agreement.htm
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. All rights reserved. The ETUI is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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