Press Release

HSE reliance on agency staff entails unacceptable costs

Date Released: 01 November 2011

An over-reliance on agency workers in the health service is costing the State millions of euro which could be better utilised on recruiting full time professional health staff, according to SIPTU Health Division Organiser, Paul Bell.

Responding to the release of figures which show the HSE spent €129.9 million on temporary agency staff in the eight months to the end of August, Paul Bell said; “The Health Service Executive moratorium on recruitment has resulted in a situation where key professional grades such as Radiographers and Health Care Assistants have been maintained on agency contracts in some cases in excess of three years. The employment of agency workers in the health service was never meant to be managed in such a fashion and in reality it’s not value for money, as the employer has to pay VAT and commission on top of wages.”

The human cost of the HSE moratorium on recruitment was dramatically highlighted in Monday (31st October) evening’s RTE documentary, The Commute. Among those featured in the programme was a newly qualified mid-wife who commutes weekly to London to work in the British NHS leaving behind her family of seven in Clonakilty, county Cork. Due to the HSE recruitment moratorium steady employment for newly qualified Irish health professionals is no longer available in their homeland.

Paul Bell said the introduction of the EU Agency Workers Directive, which would provide agency staff with the same rights and pay as their permanent full time colleagues must be legislated for on 5th December as specified by the European Commission

“The Government, as an employer, can no longer disregard good employment practices and procedures by using agency workers to casualise the health service. Patients need a full time, caring and professional service,” Paul Bell added.