FULL RECOMMENDATION
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACTS, 1946 TO 1990 SECTION 26(1), INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT, 1990 PARTIES : ST. LUKE'S AND ST. ANNE'S HOSPITAL (REPRESENTED BY THE IRISH BUSINESS AND EMPLOYERS' CONFEDERATION) - AND - SERVICES INDUSTRIAL PROFESSIONAL TECHNICAL UNION DIVISION : Chairman: Employer Member: Worker Member: |
1. Dispute concerning the rate of pay for radiographers for "after hours" work.
BACKGROUND:
2. The Hospital is seeking to reduce the payment to radiographers working after hours from £30.02 per patient to £18.50 per patient. The dispute concerns approximately 35 radiographers. The Hospital claims that current rates are, for historical reasons, unacceptably high and cannot be sustained for cost reasons. The Union rejected the Hospital's position. The dispute was the subject of 2 conciliation conferences under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission, following which the Hospital's offer of £18.50 per patient was rejected. The dispute was referred to the Labour Court, on the 20th of September, 1996, in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990. The Court carried out its investigation on the 4th of November, 1996.
HOSPITAL'S ARGUMENTS:
3. 1. The current cost of funding after hours work is excessive and cannot be sustained.
2. The Hospital has a duty of care to its patients and must provide the best possible treatment at the frequency dictated by best medical practice. At present this requires providing radiotherapy treatments into the evening on a regular scheduled basis.
3. The Hospital has been faced with a situation where a combination of improved treatment programmes and limited machine availability requires this additional work and it cannot condone or maintain a situation where one group of professional workers are, as a result, securing very high levels of pay at the expense of other needed services. It is not unreasonable to expect that all professional workers should be prepared to adapt and evolve to meet the requirements of providing the best possible care to patients.
4. As the national designated centre for cancer treatment, St. Luke's and St. Anne's Hospital must be in a position to provide the best possible service from the major capital investment that is being made in radiotherapy equipment. This requires a responsible value-for-money attitude from all concerned. As health professionals, the staff involved in radiotherapy should be responsible to the emerging needs of patients, bearing in mind that patient focused approach of the national Health Strategy and the need to examine how radiotherapy schedules can be tailored to suit the needs of patients.
5. Dublin Voluntary Hospitals, of which St. Luke's is one, receive almost 100% of their funding by way of allocation from the Department of Health. The Department and the Comptroller and Auditor General have informed the hospital that these payments must be curtailed.
6. The Union claims that its members cannot contemplate a significant loss of earnings and that the situation is not of their making. The Hospital is mindful of the financial implications of changing the rate of pay but it is the case that the radiographers have enjoyed over-inflated earnings for a long period of time. These earnings have implications for other areas of the Hospital. The Hospital is under budgetary constraints and financial allocations to other areas of the hospital are suffering as a result.
7. The machine allocation and further investment will eliminate, to some degree, the large numbers of patients being treated after hours but the rate of pay issue must be sorted out in a manner which acknowledges that a different payment system is required for scheduled non-emergency work outside of what had been to date regarded as the normal working day.
8. St. Luke's make significant earnings from fund-raising activities and if these large overtime earnings were to become public knowledge there could be serious implications for that aspect of the hospital's activities.
UNION'S ARGUMENTS:
4. 1. The treatment of patients out of hours is a necessary and established feature of the service in St. Luke's. This necessity has been established more than once and most recently by its reintroduction post-1990.
2. The workers concerned have always co-operated in the servicing of this need and in any adjustments to that service. Therefore, when management sought to eliminate the out of hours service in 1985/'86 and, even though radiographers had serious misgivings (shared by the Labour Court of the day), they co-operated with management's plans. Similarly they co-operated with the continuation of the lower level of out of hours service which continued after 1986 and again in 1990 when management required the full re-introduction of out of hours service.
3. The rate for this work is and has been the agreed established rate and was reconfirmed as such when management sought the general reintroduction of out of hours service in or around 1990.
4. The work the radiographers perform is highly professional, highly skilled and arduous, not only because of the complexity of their role in the treatment programme for patients, but also because of the general patient profile, many of whom are seriously ill requiring treatment with specific time-frames against a backdrop where current day-time facilities are fully utilised.
5. The demands of the out of hours service on workers are also severe and they frequently work until after 11p.m. Given such a constant out of hours commitment to deliver the necessary level of treatment within the required time parameters, value for cost is delivered by the radiographers.
6. The Union has attempted, on a number of occasions, both locally and via conciliation, to negotiate a solution to the position put by management. It has also been willing to continue negotiations on the after hours rate on the basis that there would be an adjustment in basic salary.
RECOMMENDATION:
The Court, having considered all the information before it, recommends that the offer of £18.50 per patient rate be increased to £20.00 per patient rate.
The Court further recommends that loss of earnings, if any, resulting from the proposed payment change, should be assessed at the end of 12 months operation, and the parties should meet to agree a formula for compensation to apply.
Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
Finbarr Flood
23rd December, 1996______________________
M.K./S.G.Deputy Chairman
NOTE
Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Michael Keegan, Court Secretary.