A suggestion by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern that those in the health sector only worked a six-hour day and took Friday afternoons off has been criticised by a number of unions representing health service staff.
Mr Ahern told a conference in Dublin yesterday that problems in health and other public services could not be solved unless working practices changed. The problems could not be solved if staff wanted to work six hours a day and finish at lunchtime on a Friday, he said.
"We can't do things in the old ways. Of course the State has to pay people for . . . negotiating these changes but we have to look at more flexible hours, more flexible working weeks, more flexible systems. We can't have high-quality equipment and capital expenditure working on narrow days. It wouldn't happen in industry, it can't happen in the public service," he added.
Impact, the country's largest public sector union, rejected the Taoiseach's claim that public servants worked a six-hour day and took Friday afternoons off.
Bernard Harbor, the union's spokesman, said the idea that public servants were inflexible and took Fridays off was an insulting stereotype. "I don't know who the Taoiseach is talking about. He knows from his own experience of working with public servants that this stereotype doesn't stand up to scrutiny," he said.
He added that the Taoiseach's remarks were puzzling because unions had just agreed to talks on new attendance patterns to allow more services to be delivered at evenings and weekends.
"It would be disappointing if the Taoiseach thinks that demeaning the efforts and contribution of staff, many of whom already work long hours in A&E departments and elsewhere, is likely to encourage support for more change. In any case, it's a bit rich when politicians have just returned from a four-month break in Dáil business," he said.
Impact represents about 25,000 staff in the health sector. These include management and administration grades, as well as physiotherapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, social workers and nurses.
Siptu national industrial secretary Matt Merrigan described the Taoiseach's comments as "a cheap shot" and "totally disingenuous because they are totally incorrect in relation to the hours staff work in the health services".
Mr Merrigan, whose union represent nurses, radiographers, community welfare officers, medical laboratory technicians and healthcare assistants, said unions recently signed up to negotiating an extended working day for staff during the talks on the new social partnership agreement Towards 2016, but were still waiting for comprehensive proposals from the management side.
Miriam McCluskey, Siptu's national nursing official, said the assertion that people work six hours a day and until lunchtime on Friday was not an accurate reflection of how nurses work.
Fintan Hourihan, director of industrial relations with the Irish Medical Organisation, said, however, that doctors would like to see more flexible work practices in hospitals.