THE NATIONAL Implementation Body (NIB) has backed proposals to allow health service managers to use money currently spent on overtime and agency staff to create more full-time positions. Health management and unions believe that this could facilitate the reduction of the working week for more nurses.
In a statement yesterday, the NIB, the main troubleshooting mechanism under social partnership which brokered the original deal on introducing a 37.5-hour week for nurses last year, said such measures would be acceptable.
However, it said that this would be subject to the current health service budget and the overall staffing ceiling in the HSE not being exceeded.
Under a deal that ended a seven-week dispute last year, a 37.5-hour week was to be introduced in June 2008 on the condition that this could be achieved on a cost-neutral basis and without affecting patient care.
However, an independent body has so far only verified local agreements on reducing the working week for about 10,400 nurses.
Other agreements in relation to a further 2,700 nurses are understood to be close to being verified. However, this means that more than half of all nurses are still outside the scope of verified local agreements to reduce their hours without costing additional money or affecting patient services.
Following a series of meetings last week, management and unions submitted a report to the NIB on Tuesday, which proposed transferring funds used to pay for overtime or agency nurses to create more full-time positions. They argued that this would facilitate additional local agreements on reducing the working week for more than 3,000 additional nurses. However, the joint report said this would have implications for the official ceiling on staffing levels in some hospitals.
In its statement yesterday, the NIB said it noted the issues that had arisen in relation to achieving change on a cost-neutral basis and in ensuring that there would be no diminution of service. It urged that the intensive engagement by management and unions should continue. It said it considered that measures to produce cost savings by reallocating spending on agency workers and overtime in a manner that might convert some expenditure into whole-time posts would be acceptable, subject to the HSE budget and staffing ceiling not being exceeded.
"In regard to achieving change on a cost-neutral basis, the body requests that the parties consider the possibility of offsetting costs in one area against savings in another, and the parties should agree wording which will assist the directors of nursing/midwifery in making determinations with regard to practical impact of the phase one reductions on services. The body accepts the emphasis should be on the continuation of the existing quality and quantity of services," it said.
The NIB urged that the renewed negotiations be completed by July 4th. The Irish Nurses' Organisation welcomed the NIB statement and said it would assist the parties in moving forward.