A series of lunchtime protests will take place next week on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th December at different locations around the country. These lunchtime protests will take place between 12.45pm and 1.45pm and provide an opportunity for Fórsa members to demonstrate our opposition to the continuing ban on recruitment.

Fórsa's clerical and administrative members in the HSE have been engaged in a sustained action of non-cooperation since the 6th of October, in response to the HSE’s unilateral imposition of a moratorium on recruitment for those grades in September. Talks at the WRC earlier this month failed to find an agreement.  These protests are the next step in this industrial action.

Fórsa national secretary Ashley Connolly said: “Despite extensive engagement by Fórsa, the HSE is unwilling to acknowledge that clerical admin roles must be filled. At this time of year the health services need to be fully staffed, not understaffed.”

“Rather than further escalating our industrial action in a way that might disrupt service delivery and service users we will protest next week  which gives our members an opportunity to voice their opposition to the recruitment freeze. The decision of the HSE to implement a recruitment freeze is unjust, our members are not responsible for the HSE overspending- the HSE must commence recruitment of vital positions now – before services are irreversibly impacted.”

An FAQ on this industrial action is available to read here.