The HSE has told union representatives it is confident it will be able to pay the majority of its staff the 3 per cent element of the national pay deal, including back money, before Christmas.
It is understood to have told them, however, that capacity issues mean that staff in two regions — the West and North-East — are unlikely to receive the money until the new year, a situation the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has described as “completely unacceptable”.
The extension to the pay deal agreed between Government and unions in August, and then ratified in early October, includes several separate pay increases. But one of particular concern to employees of the HSE is the 3 per cent element due to be backdated to the start of February.
Mounting concern
Earlier this week, the organisation wrote to its roughly 100,000 employees saying that a separate 1 per cent element would be implemented over the course of November and December, but the 3 per cent was “more challenging and every effort is being made to implement the basic pay for all pay groups across December pay dates”.
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This gave rise to the concern that workers, including nurses and other frontline staff, would not receive lump sums provided by back pay in time for Christmas or that, if they did, the figures would not take account of premiums for overtime and unsocial hours worked since February.
In a meeting on Friday afternoon, however, senior HSE officials told representatives of the main health sector unions including the INMO, Siptu, Fórsa and the IMO, that it is now confident that the payments, including back pay and all premium elements, will be made in December but that there are logistical difficulties in processing the payments in the Western and North-Eastern regions and that staff in these areas are not likely to receive the payments until the new year.
A spokesman for the IMO, which represents non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs), described this as “completely unacceptable” saying that the situation would cause “massive difficulties for NCHDs who may not be in the same area by the time the payments come through and will be left to chase payments from hospitals for work they have done many months before”.
Asked about the situation, the HSE said it “is currently working to implement the 3 per cent pay adjustment for staff included for the pay increase. This adjustment is very complex and every effort is currently being made to make these adjustments to basic pay including arrears for payment in December pay dates [up to Thursday, December 22nd]. The HSE will continue to update our staff over the coming weeks as to the progress of this work”.
