The Labour Court has recommended financial compensation for a group of HSE staff being asked to move location.
The court recommended that the staff who are being asked to move to a new location, just beyond the maximum distance for redeployment under the Croke Park deal, should receive €2,000 each as well as two additional days' leave per year for the next two years.
The Labour Court has also urged that the HSE should approach the Government about reopening a voluntary redundancy/early retirement scheme for those staff who are not willing to move to the new location.
The recommendation could set a precedent for the broader public service in cases where management are seeking to redeploy staff beyond the maximum distances set out in the Croke Park agreement.
The HSE staff concerned work in a hospital in north Cork. Management wants them to transfer from next week to a new facility in Cork city – seven kilometres beyond the limit set for redeployment under the Croke Park agreement.
The Labour Court recommendation says that since 2009 the HSE had been seeking to transfer 60 staff and 27 patients from Heatherside Hospital in Buttevant, north Cork, to Heather House on the campus of St Mary's Orthopaedic Hospital in Gurranabraher, in Cork city – a distance of 52km.
The Croke Park agreement on pay and reform in the public service provides for the relocation of staff within a radius of 45km.
As the distance involved in the north Cork case was greater than the maximum set out for redeployment under the Croke Park deal, trade unions representing the staff concerned sought compensation for the additional travel time involved as well as for travel expenses.
They also sought alternative work options for staff not willing to undertake the proposed transfer and/or the provision of an early retirement/voluntary redundancy package.
The HSE had offered to provide a bus service to run between the two locations. Management also proposed the provision of one additional day's leave for the staff concerned this year and next year on a cost-neutral basis.
HSE management said that while staff would be required to move to the Cork city centre initially, it would prioritise a return to north Cork when approved vacancies became available.
Trade unions said the transfer to the new location would add 1.5 hours to the travel time for the staff concerned.
They also argued that new rosters being proposed by management would involve 12-hour shifts and would mean that staff would be absent from home for 15 hours in total. The unions said that there would also be additional travel expenses involved for the workers concerned.
In its recommendation, which has been issued to parties in recent days, the Labour Court said that the provision of a bus would not resolve the travel issue for most staff.
It said that "there was a common claim among all the unions involved in the move that some form of compensation for the extra travel and inconvenience involved would resolve this aspect of the claim".
The court said that "due to the exceptional nature of the move" each staff member who would have to travel more than the 45km maximum should receive a once-off lump sum of €2,000.
It recommended that in compensation for the additional time involved in the transfer the staff concerned should receive two extra days' annual leave this year and next year on a cost-neutral basis.
The court also proposed that HSE management should approach "the relevant authorities" to seek approval for the application or reopening of an early retirement/ voluntary exit package for staff who are not willing to transfer to the new location.
A spokeswoman for the health executive last night declined to comment on the Labour Court recommendation.
