OPPONENTS OF changes to the contracts for nursing have been engaging in intimidating tactics which “have no place in a civilised workplace”, a senior Health Service Executive official has said.
Brian Kirwan, the HSE’s head of corporate employee relations, wrote yesterday to its personnel managers urging them to report any incidences of intimidation to him and he would pass them on to Liam Doran, the general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
The HSE is in dispute with nurses over reduced payments to agency staff designed to save €40 million a year.
In his letter Mr Kirwan said many HSE and agency nurses were being put under “severe pressure not to assist” with the new contract.
He stated “unequivocally” that the HSE had no authority to enter into discussions in relation to the rates of pay as the contracts were secured through a national procurement tendering process.
A HSE spokeswoman said that a small number of issues had been reported up the line and it was taking these up with the INMO.
Mr Doran said his union utterly rejected any allegation of intimidation. The accusation was “rich” when one nursing agency had warned members that if they did not make themselves available for work, it could not guarantee they would be offered work again in the same location.
The general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, Des Kavanagh, said that while contacts were continuing with the body charged with implementing the Croke Park agreement in the health sector, it was unlikely that any breakthrough was going to emerge last night.
The Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise is going to cancel some elective surgery from Monday in anticipation of agency staff not making themselves available for work. Some of the hospital’s full-time personnel will be re-employed to emergency departments and intensive care.