First published 8th December 2019
A number of HSE grades, including environmental health officers, biochemists, and pharmacy and clinical measurement grades, are to get enhanced annual leave arrangements thanks to a deal painstakingly negotiated by Fórsa. The new arrangement will standardise their leave, bringing it in line with other health professional grades.
The agreement also aligns the leave of similar voluntary hospital staff, who missed out on an earlier standardisation deal that aligned leave with the HSE.
Under a deal brokered by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the improved leave is to be backdated to 2015 on a “cost neutral” basis in both the HSE and the voluntary hospitals.
Formal ratification of the standardisation arrangements was delayed for over a year after employers’ body Ibec, which represents voluntary hospital management in the talks, sought clarification on how it would be implemented, particularly for recently-promoted staff. However, the HSE wrote to Ibec on 27th November confirming that an agreement had been reached, and approved voluntary hospitals to proceed to implementation stage.
This story was first published in the Forsa Health & Welfare news bulletin on Thursday 5th December 2019. You can read the full story HERE, and the news bulletin is available to read HERE.