Industrial action at the HSE 'has to stop'

THE HSE has said industrial action by staff is affecting patient safety, raising serious risk-management issues and “has to stop”.

The HSE’s national director of industrial relations, Seán McGrath, said yesterday that unions were being disingenuous in arguing it was only management that was affected by the industrial action over pay cuts.

In an address at the Industrial Relations News annual conference in UCD yesterday, he said the trade unions were fighting last year’s battle.

“The Government cut salaries. I don’t believe it’s for reversing and the trade unions now need to show the public and their members, that their campaign is motivated by the public interest and not by self-interest by pleasing those who pay their subscriptions,” he said.

Mr McGrath said for the second month running, HSE management was having great difficulty in securing information about patients due to industrial action.

He said that management was facing difficulties in identifying potential weaknesses in its systems and operations. “This indirectly impacts on patient safety and has to stop.”

In his address to the conference, Mr McGrath said many trade union leaders had criticised, rightly in some cases, that an autocratic style of management was the basic philosophy from which the HSE operated change. He said that change could and should only be achieved within the public health sector with trade union co-operation and understanding.

“However, we cannot start on the basic premise of ‘what we have we hold’, and that is for management as much as the trade unions. It is high time that we moved from the rhetoric of partnership to the reality,” he said.

Separately, in a letter to be sent to staff in the HSE, Mr McGrath said the situation would be monitored closely and “all appropriate actions will be considered, where necessary, to protect patient services and the HSE’s statutory obligations”.

The letter urged staff to “co-operate with all requests to carry out your full range of normal duties with immediate effect”.

It continued: “You will be aware that the health sector trade unions are currently engaged in a campaign of industrial action in the health sector which has resulted in staff refusing to carry out their full range of normal duties. The campaign of industrial action raises serious risk management issues.

“Clearly any form of industrial action causes distress and anxiety to our patients and members of the general public. Furthermore, the HSE and funded agencies provide an essential . . . service to the public and in this regard it is important that all grades of staff work normally so as to protect the essential ethos of healthcare delivery.”