On Sunday 30th March, after nearly twenty-five hours of engagement between unions and the HSE in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) regarding proposals to recruit and retain staff in the health service, Fórsa, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), Connect, Unite and the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association took the decision to suspend a work-to-rule action that was due to begin on Monday 31st March. 

An emergency meeting of Fórsa’s health and welfare divisional executive committee (DEC) took place at 8am and decided to suspend the planned action to allow time to consider the proposals. This decision was then immediately communicated to members working in the HSE and HSE-funded hospitals.  

The DEC met again on Monday 31st March and Wednesday 2nd April to consider the proposals.  This was following a Divisional Council meeting, held on Tuesday 1st April, attended by 60 branch and NPC representatives from across the country.   

At the DEC meeting on Wednesday, the committee unanimously agreed to ballot members on the proposals and to recommend acceptance.  

Commenting on the proposals, head of Fórsa's health and welfare division Ashley Connolly said: “This was a challenging negotiation with a robust exchange of views. The DEC had clearly set out the basis for any potential resolution before we went into negotiations which enabled us to clearly advocate for members when we were in the room.” 

“We were clear that in order to avert industrial action it was essential that any proposals would include Fórsa members having a role in workforce planning, a review of recruitment to already agreed posts, commitments against outsourcing, protections for direct employment, as well as processes to address the posts that were vacant on the 31st December 2023 and ongoing cover for maternity leave. These proposals address all these issues.” 

“There is also a six-month review of implementation under the auspices of the WRC, which is a crucial element of these proposals. We need to make sure that the HSE honours these proposals nationally and locally. Regional forums will be established to allow for extensive local engagement and provision of information on staff numbers, grades, areas, activity levels, and other relevant details.” 

National secretary Linda Kelly said: “We’re immensely proud of the resolve our members demonstrated in the planning and preparation for this industrial action. Without it we would not have been able to achieve these proposals. The HSE knew that a work to rule by our members would severely disrupt the health services and moved considerably beyond their starting position to stop that from happening.” 

“If passed, these proposals will provide members with clear opportunities to have input into workforce planning both at local and national level – this is a significant move in the health sector where members have previously been excluded from such discussions. For members, this will be an opportunity to solidify the collective strength and leverage that they created in preparation for the industrial action.”  

Ballot planning is underway, and details of information meetings will be communicated to members via email.  

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