IMPACT has opened a ballot of clerical, administrative and management staff in the HSE and voluntary hospitals over management’s failure to meet its commitment to re-open the HSE Job evaluation scheme from June.
The ballot is being conducted by local branches and closes on 12th August, when the precise form of industrial action will be decided. It’s likely to start with limited forms of action that maximise inconvenience for management, while minimising the impact on patients and other service users.
IMPACT national secretary Eamonn Donnelly said the failure to implement the job evaluation agreement put the HSE and health department in clear breach of the Lansdowne Road agreement (LRA).
“IMPACT raised job evaluation as a core issue in the Lansdowne Road talks and our health service members backed the deal on the clear understanding that it would deliver the reopening of the HSE scheme. I agree when I hear ministers says that Lansdowne Road is the only game in town. But I can’t find the section of the agreement that allows management to pick and choose the bits it wants to abide by.”
Union representatives are incredulous that management is stalling on a deal reached as recently as April, when the HSE said the scheme would re-open on 1st June. The talks that led to that agreement were established under Lansdowne Road after IMPACT identified job evaluation as a core issue for health staff.
When the HSE failed to follow through, IMPACT raised the issue at the LRA ‘health sector oversight body,’ which monitors implementation of the agreement in the sector. It subsequently became clear that the health service management intended to renege on the deal, despite the clear LRA commitment that the scheme would be re-opened.
The scheme, which is meant to apply to clerical and administrative grades III to VI, and related grades, offers staff the prospect of an upgrading if their job roles and responsibilities are found to have increased sufficiently.
Its eight-year suspension – it was abandoned at the onset of the economic crash – has led to a significant backlog of existing and potential applications from workers who have taken on substantial extra responsibilities as clerical and admin staff numbers fell dramatically during the crisis.
Job evaluation is an established tool that allows the knowledge, skill and responsibilities associated with individual jobs – rather than grades or staff categories – to be assessed and appropriately rewarded. While a job evaluation doesn’t guarantee an upgrading, many health staff believe their roles have grown considerably as they have taken on more work and responsibility over the years.
IMPACT says the scheme is capable of being applied to more senior administrative and management grades, as well as professional and technical staff, and has sought its extension to these grades.
Find out more about the scheme agreed – but not yet implemented – by the HSE HERE.
