SOME AGENCY nurses could face pay cuts of as much as 70 per cent under new contracts being introduced by the Health Service Executive (HSE), unions have claimed.
The HSE is seeking to put in place streamlined arrangements for securing nurses, doctors, therapists and healthcare assistants from agencies in a move it believes could save about €40 million a year.
Trade union Siptu said yesterday the HSE was seeking to make these savings on the backs of its members.
Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation general secretary Liam Doran said personnel supplied by agencies to the HSE faced “huge” and “savage” pay cuts under the new plan.
He described the move as “grossly unfair, out of order and unacceptable”.
The HSE said its plan to reduce costs in the provision of agency personnel represented “significant value for the taxpayer”.
At present, nurses provided by agencies are paid the tenth point on the staff nurse pay scale, regardless of experience.
Under the revised plans, nurses with less than two years’ experience will be paid at the minimum point of the lower entry scale introduced by the Government. Other staff will be paid on the fifth point of the existing scale.
Unions said yesterday that under the HSE plans agency nurses would also receive reduced payments for working at night, on Sundays and on public holidays.
Mr Doran said while the aim was to provide as much direct employment as possible, agency staff are always needed.
The HSE said in a statement: “The HSE is reducing the numbers of agencies it uses for the hiring of agency staff from over 30 to 12. This will save approximately €33 million across the HSE and over €40 million across the whole health sector in 2011.
“This represents significant value [for] the taxpayer and the HSE will continue with the implementation of the new arrangements over the coming weeks.”