THE HSE will begin the process of removing staff involved in industrial action from the payroll at a meeting next Thursday.
Under the HSE plans, the staff concerned will first receive a letter from management.
They are expected to be asked to attend a meeting with management, where they will be asked to confirm within 48 hours that they will carry out normal duties.
Those who do not give that undertaking will receive seven days’ notice that they will be removed from the payroll.
Sources said if trade union Impact does not lift a ban on the provision of key financial and activity on Thursday, the process to begin removing staff from the payroll will be triggered. However, it could be the following Monday or Tuesday before staff would receive the first warning letters.
HSE executives have been asked to identify cuts that would allow it to generate a €200 million reserve fund to offset budgetary overruns that may arise from the industrial action.
This is expected to involve the cancellation of elective admissions, cuts in homecare packages and reduced home help hours.
The HSE is also drawing up contingency plans to deal with any escalation of action if staff are removed from the payroll.
Impact has warned that if staff were suspended, its members would immediately cease using e-mail or information technology systems. Walkouts and other protests could also take place.
The HSE board was briefed yesterday by management on its plans for dealing with industrial action. The HSE has asked the union to provide a derogation from its wider industrial action for the financial data.
However, Impact has said it cannot not do so until it receives clarification of the Croke Park deal on public service pay and reform of an agreement signed in 2004 when the health boards were abolished.
Yesterday Impact advised its members not to attend meetings with HSE management without union representation.
Impact’s national secretary Kevin Callinan said without the clarification, the union would not be able to ballot on the deal.
“Without a ballot on the proposals, it is not possible to consider amending the industrial action, not least because twice last year unions suspended industrial action only to see Government and employers walk away from agreements,” he said.
Mr Callinan rejected claims by the HSE that the industrial action was harming patients and clients.
“Our action is aimed solely at the HSE top management, which is clearly unable to distinguish between the frontline care that Impact members and others provide to the public and the demands of its internal systems and procedures. Its threat of €200 million further cuts has nothing to do with the industrial action,” he said.
Impact has also asked other trade unions for support.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has backed Impact members and said it noted with concern “attempts at intimidation” by HSE management.
- Academic staff at NUI Galway who are members of Siptu have rejected the Croke Park proposal. A statement issued by university staff affiliated to Siptu states that "the Government is trying to shift even more of the burden of the financial crisis on to the backs of working families through the public sector pay agreement".