Medical cards row: Family doctors incensed at being excluded from yet another national pay round may take industrial action unless the decision is speedily reversed.
GPs who provide care to medical card holders were due a 1.5 per cent pay increase on June 1st but did not receive it, in what the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has described as an "extremely surprising development". Signalling that industrial action could be taken Dr Martin Daly, chairman of the IMO's GP committee, said the move left the IMO and its members "with no place to go".
The IMO has referred the issue "as a matter of urgency" to the Government's National Implementation Body, he said.
The withholding of the pay increase came just a week after talks broke down between the IMO and the Health Service Executive Employers Agency (HSEEA) on the refusal to pay GPs a number of previous pay awards and on the introduction of doctor-only medical cards.
There is no sign of the talks, held under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission, reconvening.
GPs were very disappointed and disturbed at the withholding of the 1.5 per cent pay increase, Dr Daly, said "given that the IMO were engaged in talks in good faith on resolving all other outstanding issues under the auspices of the LRC".
"And whilst the talks had broken down the IMO had expected some initiative from management in order to conclude negotiations," he added.
"After having acted in a responsible manner in using all the industrial relations machinery in the State it really leaves the IMO and its members with no place to go," Dr Daly said.
"It would appear national wage rounds are being used inappropriately as industrial relations levers," he added.
Gerard Barry, chief executive of the HSEEA, said his view was the 1.5 per cent pay increase should be dealt with "as part of a composite agreement" that addressed all outstanding issues between the IMO and the HSEEA.
"We don't think this issue should be dealt with in isolation from the LRC process we are involved with at the moment.
"One of the key objectives of these negotiations is to agree the ground rules for pay bargaining with GPs into the future and we are quite prepared to address this issue as part of a composite agreement we want to reach with the IMO under the auspices of the LRC," he said.
The HSEEA has already indicated that GPs should not expect pay increases unless they co-operate with the introduction of doctor-only medical cards.