Backpay for EM doctors on hold

Written by Lloyd Mudiwa Monday, 03 November 2008 15:23

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Payment, which was due to emergency medicine (EM) consultants by the end of last month, will not be made, pending clarification on a sticking point between parties to the dispute, the HSE has said.
The decision has drawn the ire of the IHCA, which de­scribed it as “unacceptable”.

The payments are due as a result of a decision on July 30 by arbitrator Mr Tom Mallon BL after he found that the consultants were improperly deprived of private practice rights, which could be worth as much as €200,000 for some consultants.

A spokesperson for the HSE told IMN that under the arbitration – which the HSE accepts – payment must be made by the end of November, but, according to the IHCA, Mr Mallon recommended arrears be paid no later than November 1, 2008.

“However, the IMO and IHCA are seeking clarification from the arbiter on the terms of the arbitration and no progress can be made until that issue is resolved,” the HSE spokesperson said. The issue, according to the HSE, relates to whether consultants are entitled to monies prospectively (in relation to access to private practice in emergency departments into the future) as well as retrospectively. Without indicating what the payments are estimated to amount to, the HSE says it believes that Mr Mallon’s arbitration found that the monies are due retrospectively only.

However, IHCA Assistant Secretary General Mr Martin Varley told IMN: “Our position is that it’s disappointing that the HSE has not already made payments awarded by the arbitrator. There is no acceptable reason in our mind why they have not done so.

“The disagreement should not affect the payments already awarded. Clarification, which we have requested by the way, is required in relation to prospective payments. They are two separate events.”
He maintained that each consultant should be reclassified so that they are on the same pay band as psychiatrists, geriatricians and consultants in palliative medicine, and that the recategorisation should be back-dated to January 1, 1998, or their individual date of appointment.