Clerical staff at public hospitals in Limerick city and county have today began industrial action to protest against the overinflated salary being paid to a senior manager at UL Hospitals Group. The hospitals affected are University Hospital Limerick, the Maternity Hospital, Croom Orthopaedic, Ennis and Nenagh hospitals.
The dispute centers around the appointment of Liam Casey as Chief Operations Manager of UL Hospitals Group. Mr. Casey was appointed to the role through Starline, the management consulting firm owned by himself.
This arrangement entitles Mr. Casey to a salary of 250,000 euro, a wage packet nearly twice higher that the normal rate of pay for such position. This amount blatantly rips apart the pay cap supposedly in place to avoid these scandals. The cap breach is possible because Mr. Casey has been appointed via consultancy contract, rather than public competition. Though the post was indeed advertised publically, HSE representatives claim it proved “impossible to fill for a variety of reasons, as sometimes occurs”.
The monies paid to this individual would cover at least a team of 5 extra clerical workers, at a time when extra staff is badly needed.
The HSE has announced that public competition to fill the role will run again in the future, but until such time, Mr. Casey will enjoy this privileged position.