Social care workers owed €7.5m by HSE
Around 400 social care workers in Galway and Roscommon are owed €7.5 million from the Health Service Executive (HSE) for unpaid wages stretching back over a decade.
The HSE has acknowledged that it owes the money to workers, and has been directed by Labour Court to pay its debts. But it is refusing to make the payments and clear its debts, claiming an inability to pay.
Trade unions IMPACT and SIPTU are demanding that the HSE honour its commitment to the social care workers who look after people with disabilities in the communities.
The social care workers and leaders have been working with Brothers of Charity Services and Ability West. They used to be known as ‘Old House Parents’.
At a Labour Court hearing last week, the HSE accepted that about 400 workers in Galway and Roscommon are entitled to what’s known as Twilight Premium Time payments, which is time and one sixth extra for working between 8pm and midnight.
The outstanding bill is about €7.5 million.
The HSE has previously said it would honour the debt but at the Labour Court hearing it said it would pay the monies going forward but it equivocated over its ability to pay the historic arrears.
The HSE said it could not sustain the costs, and if they paid it, the organisation faces “greater financial difficulties”.
The HSE has paid in full other categories including managers, nurses and care assistants; they withheld the Twilight Payments from social care workers however.
Recently, the HSE in Dublin reimbursed social care workers in three organisations, Home Again Traveller, Families Care and Cottage Home for Little Children.
IMPACT in Galway says it is completely unacceptable that the HSE continues to withhold monies from social care workers in Galway and Roscommon.
“Only a heartless organisation without a soul would continue to treat social care workers in such a heartless and completely unacceptable manner,” said Padraig Mulligan, assistant general secretary of IMPACT.
He added: “The HSE have told us that they do not have the monies to pay these arrears and that paying Twilight Premium Time going forward is the best they can do. This is not an acceptable position as far as we are concerned particularly in light of the fact that last week they just paid all back monies to agencies in Dublin.”
IMPACT and SIPTU is hosting two meetings for workers who are affected by the HSE’s decision to withhold the monies. One meeting will take place in Clayton Hotel, Galway, on Thursday, March 26 at 12 noon to 3pm; and there will be a meeting in the Abbey Hotel, Roscommon, on Wednesday, April 1, from 12 noon to 3pm.