Fórsa has sought an early meeting with the HSE after the health employer recently agreed to address variations in leave for hospital staff left behind in a recent standardisation exercise.

In a recent letter to the union, HSE management conceded that there was an ‘agreement in principle’ with the union, and that they would honour it.

The HSE standardised leave for most hospital grades in 2009. But when Fórsa looked for this to be rolled out to voluntary hospitals, it emerged that a significant number of grades – including pharmacists, clinical measurement professionals and play therapists – had been overlooked.

Following representations from the union, the HSE’s HR department has now produced a list of these grades, and invited the union to outline a specific claim for each.

The HSE said it would then “address any variations over an agreed period of time.”