ABOUT 1,000 HSE staff working on short-term or temporary contracts are to lose their jobs.
The lay-offs will occur, according to the executive, to enable the appointment of permanent staff in areas considered higher priority.
The executive is expected to tell unions at a meeting today that it will be required to restructure its workforce to deliver priority services.
It is understood that the executive will say that as a result of the embargo on recruitment and promotion, and its requirement to comply with its employment ceiling, that it cannot appoint about 1,000 people for the new priority areas without reducing staff on temporary contracts.
It is also likely to tell unions that significant redeployment of staff will be required to allow for the delivery of priority services.
Executive sources said last night that the temporary staff who are to lose their jobs as their contracts expire are based in all areas of the organisation.
The announcement is expected to be met with anger by union leaders who have argued in talks with the executive that temporary staff should not be let go.
The HSE is expected to tell unions that the removal of the staff on temporary contracts is required to allow it to roll out a series of new service developments and service improvements.
The 1,000 new permanent posts are expected to be created in the following areas: primary care teams, disability services, services for older people, palliative care, social work, diabetic retinopathy, child and adolescent mental health, renal services, maternity services, adult critical care services, haematology/haemophilia services, metabolic disease services, transplant services, cystic fibrosis services and neurosciences.
Executive sources told The Irish Timeslast night that there would be "a period of transition" in the months ahead with new staff in priority areas being taken on almost on a one-for-one basis as employees working on temporary contracts were let go.
Sources said that the overall number of people employed in the HSE would remain the same.
The executive has an official employment ceiling, set by the Government of more than 111,000 whole-time equivalent personnel.
The executive also has to operate within the Government’s moratorium on recruitment and promotion, introduced at the end of March, as part of its cost-cutting initiative. However, the recruitment moratorium does not apply to medical consultants, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, behavioural therapists, counsellors (mental health and disability services), social workers and emergency medical technicians.
In addition, the Government granted an exemption to allow for additional staff to be appointed to the cancer control programme.
Some union sources have warned that any announcement by the executive on shedding staff on temporary contracts would lead to a serious dispute.
Unions have argued over recent months, as it became apparent that the executive was examining the position of these staff, that the health service was at any time hugely dependent on people designated as temporary.
At talks with management on cost-saving measures recently, unions have sought employment protections for staff recruited initially on a temporary basis, but who have remained on the payroll for several years in some cases.