Job adverts spark anger from staff

Job adverts spark anger from staff

29 February 2012 - by JOANNE FLEMING

A JOB advertisement for new health service finance staff in Ballymena has angered Downpatrick finance staff, who are currently fighting the proposed transfer of their own jobs to Ballymena.

The staff based in the Downshire hospital want Downpatrick to remain a centre for finance administration but Ballymena is the preferred centre for consultants who have proposed a radical shake-up of administration services across Northern Ireland’s health service.

If the plans led by the Business Services Organisation (BSO) get the go-ahead, 30 local staff could be faced with a daily 110-mile round trip to Ballymena from October.

Staff, who have pointed to the excellence of the current service and the impact on local families should the plans be approved, said they were shocked to see the advertisement in a daily newspaper this week.

A member of finance staff, who asked not to be named, said the advertisement for Administrative Support Staff suggested BSO had already decided on the outcome of the consultation process.

“We were shocked to see the advertisement,” she said. “It is more of an ethical issue.”

The woman said BSO, aware of their unhappiness at the prospect of a move to Ballymena, may have been trying to pre-empt job vacancies.

“They are aware we are not all going to move and were trying to make sure they did not end up with a shortfall,” she said.

Local MP, Margaret Ritchie, said the advertisement placed the consultation process in a very difficult position.

“I will be raising this matter with the Minister for Health on March 5 during question time in the Assembly,” she said. “I will be calling for the current process to be reviewed and for the Department to look again at the criteria for the locations of the main BSO centres in Northern Ireland.

“Downpatrick is a centre for public administration, already providing this service. It can also offer great potential for future public service expansion and provision, and the staff in Downpatrick have a huge wealth of administration experience and skill.

“I have publicly questioned the validity of the recommendations on the new BSO locations and this further development raises very serious concerns about the validly of the consultation process. Quite clearly this process must now be abandoned.”

The BSO declined to comment but it is understood they have suspended the recruitment process after  staff raised concerns over the advertisement.