The Labour Court has ruled that the Health Service Executive (HSE) breached the terms of the national agreement, Towards 2016, in the manner it introduced a recruitment freeze last year.

The HSE introduced the recruitment ban last September as part of its “Financial Break-Even Plan” to deal with a €200 million financial overrun. The freeze was lifted on January 1st.

Unions representing over 100,000 healthcare staff brought an action to the Labour Court last month, arguing that the HSE breached the terms of Section 28.13 of Towards 2016, which states that “unions will be informed in advance of all new workplace-related initiatives which have a significant effect on staff, the reasons for them and the proposed implementation date.”

The joint complaint was submitted by Impact, Siptu, the Irish Nursing Organisation, the Irish Medical Organisation and a number of other unions. Read more