The Labour Court recommended that the HSE reduce consultants’ historic rest leave by 25%, rather than its proposed 50%, and extend the time to take it to 2020. The recommendation, dated 6 November 2012, addressed three disputes with the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO).
For compensatory rest after call-outs, the Court recommended aligning arrangements with standard public health service practice, while retaining the existing system for consultants on 1:1 and 1:2 rosters until those rosters were eliminated. Staff moving to less onerous on-call rosters would transfer to the standard HSE arrangements.
In a separate dispute over allowances for second opinions under the Mental Health Act 2001, the Court recommended considering the issue in line with its earlier recommendation on allowances, pending consideration by the National Implementation Body. The recommendations were made under the Industrial Relations Act 1990.