Clerical and administrative staff at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital left their work stations at lunchtime today to add their voices to the nationwide call for an end to the freeze on recruitment in the HSE.
Speaking at the picket line outside the main gate of the hospital, the assistant General Secretary to the North Eastern Branch of their Trade Union Fórsa, Lynn Coffey, told Drogheda Life that the Union’s campaign to end the freeze on employment started in October.
“This is a nationwide dispute and is going across ten HSE sites today. We are giving workers the opportunity to come out and show their bosses their disgust at their statement in which they say that they are overstaffed and have reached their headcount.
“It is very clear to our members that the head count has not been reached and there are huge numbers of vacancies cross the various sectors, particularly among the clerical and administrative grades.
“We are going into the busiest time of the year and we don’t have enough resources to staff the hospitals as they try to implement their winter plans.
“When you don’t have clerical and admin staff available that means other grades such as A&E must do their own admin taking them away from services for the most vulnerable of people and this is just not good enough.
“We are simply asking for a “one in, one out” system whereby, if one staff member leaves, they are replaced. That is not happening at the moment because they are saying they’ve reached their head count but it is very clear that they haven’t.
“This impacting badly on patients” she said. “All of our workers are great advocates for our patients despite being overworked and overstretched. “They are constantly reaching across different services to try and provide services to multiple disciplines but they just can’t continue to do so.
The crux of the problem she says is outsourcing. “The HSE have outsourced hugely in the last couple of years which has left us with non-direct employment which has resulted in severe understaffing and we are going to see patients waiting longer for treatments.
Labour TD Ged Nash joined the Fórsa picket line for a time and he said that the administration and managerial grade staff and their union Forsa are being treated appallingly by the employer.
“First the HSE unilaterally imposed a recruitment pause on all grades above Grade VII.
“Of itself this is a breach of both the letter and spirit of the existing collective agreement.
“Remember that this all came before the decision by the HSE to introduce a recruitment embargo for 2024 because the Fianna Fáil Minister for Health hasn’t the ability to secure a workable budget for the health service for 2024.
“The union has given every opportunity to the employer to work with them under the auspices of the WRC to conclude a possible framework to resolve the issues at stake.
“I can’t help but conclude that the HSE does not sufficiently value these over-stretched and under resourced staff, the very people who make our health service function and I know from speaking to workers on the picket line today that they are determined to take whatever action is necessary.
“They care about the health service. They care about patients and our hospital. It’s high time those in positions of leadership and responsibility at national level started to do so too.”
