Further cuts in health services in the eastern region were forecast as inevitable yesterday after it emerged that 110 temporary staff are to have their working hours halved by the South Western Area Health Board.
The board, which has also put a ban on the employment of all agency nurses, says the measures are being introduced to comply with an employment ceiling imposed on it.
The board, which provides health services to people in south Dublin, west Wicklow and Kildare, currently has 155 more employees than are approved by the Eastern Regional Health Authority. It must cut back, it says, to reach its approved ceiling of 4,297 by the end of this year.
Apart from cutting the hours of temporary workers it has decided not to fill a number of vacancies and it will not renew some short-term temporary contracts.
"The board is continuing to engage in discussions with staff and unions on this matter and is working to minimise the effects on services and staff," a health board spokesman said.
The IMPACT trade union has sought an urgent meeting with the health board's chief executive officer, Mr Pat Donnelly, to discuss the plans for short-time working, which it wants rescinded immediately.
Mr Stephen O'Neill, assistant general secretary with the union, said the move would affect staff who had been working with the board for less than a year. The board planned to halve their working hours, which was totally unacceptable.
Furthermore, he said the manner in which the health board planned to cut staff working hours was in breach of partnership agreements. "They announced this as a fait accompli. There was no consultation," he protested.
While the health board said the measures would be applied to staff across the organisation, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO)said it was mainly nurses who would be affected.
Its deputy general secretary Mr David Hughes said the INO was very annoyed. The move was in breach of Sustaining Progress and commitments that front-line staff would not be affected by cuts, he said.
"This will reduce patient services and care of the elderly pretty dramatically," he added.
The primary industrial relations forum in the health service, the National Joint Council for the Health Service, will discuss the health board's action when it meets on Thursday.