MANAGEMENT AND health sector trade union leaders have agreed methods to cut costs and changes in work practices for up to 100,000 staff.
However, the implementation of the agreement is conditional on progress in talks between the Government and unions on policy issues including employment protections for thousands of staff recruited initially on a temporary basis but who have remained on the payroll for several years in some cases.
Management had sought to introduce reforms including work practice changes, greater freedom to redeploy or re-assign staff, reduction of overtime and a curtailment on the use of agency staff as part of an effort to save €320 million next year.
The document upon which the agreement is based provides for consultations at area and local level on savings plans as well as for mechanisms to deal with disputes.
Union leaders described the deal as "radical" and said that it would test the partnership model in a manner in which it has never been tested before.
Unions had sought guarantees that there would be no compulsory redundancies and assurances for the continued employment of several thousand temporary staff. The Health Service Executive (HSE) said that it could not provide any additional assurances other than those set out in legislation.
The executive added that anything else was a matter for Government.
As part of the agreement special committees of senior HSE management and full-time union officials will receive monthly reports on all cost-cutting measures which have been implemented or are being considered, along with achieved or projected savings.
At local level union and management representatives will oversee the implementation of agreed changes, verify their effectiveness and ensure that industrial relations issues are dealt with swiftly and effectively.
Moreover, the arrangement allows for management to hold talks at local level with union representatives on cuts and present such plans within 21 days of the implementation date.
These proposals will contain analysis supporting the measures, assurances on the protection of patient care, the impact on staff numbers, rosters and earnings and the duration of the proposals.
"Management will be required to demonstrate that cost containment measures, when implemented, have not resulted in a diminution of the quality of services to the public," the document states.
The agreement also contains provision for dealing with any local disputes arising from proposed cuts including referral, in some cases, for independent adjudication which would be accepted by both sides.
The document also notes that while the sick leave scheme will continue, there will be an intensive joint effort to reduce levels of absenteeism.
It notes that while travel and subsistence arrangements will be maintained, "individual or workplace budgets that have the effect of restricting or capping the actual amount of travelling undertaken may be introduced".
Impact trade union national secretary Kevin Callinan said last night that the agreement was a radical document which was going to challenge everybody and to test partnership in a way that it had never been tested before.
He said that it represented the "best shot" of the parties for dealing with the economic difficulties facing the health sector.
He said that it was now up to the Government to give a clear signal that it would play its part in providing "balancing measures".
HSE national director of industrial relations Seán McGrath said the agreement represented a significant step for employers and employees to position the health service to provide services for patients in the difficult economic climate the country now finds itself in.