UNDER pressure health service staff in hospitals in Killarney and Tralee brought their own teabags to work to save a few euro and avoid having to pay for refreshments in hospital canteens, it recently emerged.
Furious workers hit out at the Health Service Executive who had imposed a charge for cups of boiling water in official canteens.
Staff at Killarney Community Hospital and Kerry General Hospital recently revealed that they were being charged for every cup of boiling water they requested in designated dining areas.
A union spokesman, speaking on their behalf, said if the average member of staff had four cups of tea at work every day, the cost quickly adds up and they end up paying up to €10 every week or hundreds of euro a year.
SIPTU official Ted Kenny remarked: “Being asked to pay for a little cup of boiling water is very excessive.”
He raised the matter with hospital management as, he said, many of the workers he represented were among the lowest paid in the health sector and cannot afford to pay for water.
“They are understaffed. They are working a lot harder and they are put to the pin of their collar trying to provide a service to the public and to the patients they deal with,” Mr Kenny said.
The high cost of staffing canteens as well as service and wash-up overheads is understood to have been a key factor in the HSE’s decision to implement the charge but the situation has now been rectified.
