Written answers
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
Department of Health
Health Services Staff
Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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697. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide an update on the issues faced by residential health care staff working on sleepover duty after the Labour Court ruling in view of the fact that some residential care staff are expected to work 63 hours per week instead of the statutory 48 hours; the reasons for same; if sleepover duty, where a member of staff is on-call while working overnight is part of the working week and if it is treated as such for pay purposes; his views on whether these hours are in breach of EU and Irish working time legislation; his views on the low levels of hourly pay associated with sleepover duty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31515/14]
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy has outlined above, the Haddington Road Agreement provides for a process of negotiation under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission in respect of staff working in residential care settings.
Discussions in the Labour Relations Commission, involving my Department, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the HSE, Service Providers and the Trade Unions concluded recently. Despite detailed management proposals to move towards compliance with the European Working Time Directive, significant differences between management and unions remain. The matter has now been referred to the Labour Court.
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