Plans for a smooth transition of health service staff to new structures under the Government's health service reform programme in January suffered a setback yesterday when the union representing a quarter of the staff instructed them not to attend briefing sessions on the planned changes this week. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports.
IMPACT, which represents 25,000 health service workers, said the briefing sessions by the interim Health Service Executive (HSE) would cover many issues such as safeguards on jobs, pay, and working conditions which had not yet been agreed with it.
Mr Kevin Callinan, national secretary of IMPACT's health and welfare division, said that in the circumstances IMPACT believed the briefing sessions could represent an attempt by the interim HSE "to circumvent a negotiated resolution on these issues".
He instructed members not to attend, co-operate with, or participate in the briefing sessions.
The union is already seeking a mandate from members to take industrial action over the uncertainties surrounding the roles of health board staff following the abolition of health boards at the end of the year and a changeover to new structures which will see the HSE taking over the day-to-day running of the Department of Health. The outcome of the ballot will be known on Friday.
Mr Kevin Kelly, executive chairman of the interim HSE, said IMPACT's decision on the briefings was unfortunate. He said the union was concerned about uncertainties surrounding the changeover yet asking staff not to attend briefing sessions on the changes would only serve to increase anxieties further.
He said the interim HSE didn't have answers to everything at present but hoped to in the next two to three weeks.
He admitted there was a "tight deadline" to the changeover to new structures but insisted the changes would still happen on January 1st. He reiterated the change was "a journey" that could take years and there would be "no big bang".
Mr Kelly said he had met with IMPACT several times and had written to it again yesterday to allay its concerns.
He said an undertaking had been given that there would be no involuntary redundancies and he saw no need for a voluntary redundancy package for any of the 96,000 staff in the health service. "In terms of relocation, it will only be done by negotiation and agreement," he stressed.