THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) is to freeze outside recruitment for all management and administrative positions and to carry out an immediate review of allowances paid to thousands of staff in the organisation.
In a circular issued last night, the HSE also said that overall where an approved vacancy existed managers would be banned from filling it until such time as all options, including redeployment and reassignment, have been examined.
It said the “utilisation of skill mix” would be examined and considered, and there would be an immediate pause in the filling of all management and administrative vacancies other than through redeployment or reassignment.
The circular also said that a critical review of allowances payable to all employees would be undertaken “for the purpose of assessing the sanctioning policy in each case and the appropriateness of continuing such arrangements in the current financial climate”.
It said that the review of allowances would be completed by the middle of next month.
The HSE currently pays out nearly €160 million to thousands of staff in various forms of allowances. It is understood that up to 4,000 personnel currently have “acting-up” allowances, for example.
“Significant payroll costs arise from the payment of allowances over and above basic pay. Overtime and on-call payments, as well as usage of agency staff, are other significant costs in the delivery of health services. In the context of the current financial challenging environment and the need to deliver more for less, there is an immediate requirement to review, monitor and manage the payment of all allowances paid to staff and take whatever measures to ensure public accountability and the delivery of services in the most cost-effective and appropriate fashion.
“Each area will conduct a review of all allowances currently being paid to staff in their area to ensure they are being properly applied. All such payments will require the formal approval and sign-off of the area assistant national director of finance and area assistant national director of human resources for it to be continued beyond the end of February 2009,” it said.
The circular said that the HSE’s service plan for the year – its blueprint on how its overall budget will be spent – required cuts in expenditure equivalent to the pay costs of 2,457 whole-time staff.
It said that in effect in 2009, the only increases in employment which could be considered were in the national cancer control programme, disability services and mental health services.
“The 3 per cent reduction in management/administration grades (announced by the Government in the Budget) and the possible impact in 2009 of an early retirement/redundancy scheme for the health services should result in an overall reduction from current employment levels during 2009,” it stated.
In a letter to the HSE last night, the group of health unions strongly criticised the circular and called for it not to be issued pending further talks.
