THE HOSPITAL PAY debate came to a head this week as workers demonstrated outside the South West Acute Hospital.
While the mood appeared upbeat outside on the hospital site, there were clear issues that workers needed addressed.
The debate, ongoing for over a month, centres around a new pay system which has resulted in many of Fermanagh’s 1,800 health workers being left out of pocket.
“Would you work if you weren’t getting paid?,” asked Jill Weir, Fermanagh Unison representative, asked the Fermanagh Herald, speaking on the hospital site.
“The health service is founded and keeps going on the goodwill of staff – and it’s running out. After the last few years of having no reasonable pay awards; it’s getting harder for everybody. And now, not getting paid properly is too much.”
The underpayments followed the centralisation of the payroll system for the Western Trust and other trusts to the Belfast-based, Business Services Organisation (BSO). Staff have not been receiving payments for overtime, travel claims and other allowances.
The Western Trust said that it is ‘working closely with local union representatives to keep them appraised of the on-going position regarding the salary payments of Western Trust staff’.
A spokesman added: “As an employer we are very concerned about the ongoing difficulties our staff are having with their pay. On behalf of our employees we are working with the Business Services Organisation (BSO) staff, who are responsible for the administration of the payroll. We are working to ensure that all affected staff receive any shortfall in payments and their pay entitlements as quickly as possible.”
Ms Weir added: “There’s nobody that has vast amounts of savings; we’re all living month to month. There is another worry in that some people are being overpaid, and not being made aware. When you do shift patterns, it’s very hard to determine what you should be paid; and the following week it’s all being taken out of it.”
Sinn Fein MP, Michelle Gildernew was in attendance at the demonstration.
She said: “I am here in support of health workers from the hospital here, and across the whole service that have been affected now, some of them for months and months.
“People are getting very frustrated. We have to remember that the health service employs thousands of people.
“It has to be sorted out, it has to be sorted out immediately. But I’d have to ask the question of who took the decision to implement a system that obviously hadn’t been tried and tested, that isn’t fit for purpose?”
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