Health staff are due a 1% pay increase with effect from 1st January 2018, under the Public Service Stability Agreement (PSSA) negotiated by Fórsa and other public service unions. The next instalment of the deal, which was backed by members of the three unions that recently amalgamated to create our new union, will see a further 1% adjustment in October.

Health minister Simon Harris and the chief executives of the HSE, Tusla and the National Association of Voluntary Bodies will be among the speakers at a Fórsa conference on the future of health and social care professionals (HSCP) next month. Susanne Rastrick, chief allied professions officer of NHS England will also contribute.

Fórsa’s Health and Welfare divisional executive has approved a campaign of industrial action to win pay restoration in agencies that are funded by the public health service, but which operate independently of the HSE. The union is identifying which of these ‘section 39’ agencies have failed to restore recession-era pay cuts, even though they have relatively robust funding streams.

The final piece of the Fórsa jigsaw was put in place on 2nd January, when the Registrar for Friendly Societies confirmed that the new union was registered and cleared to start work on behalf of more than 80,000 members. The registrar is the statutory regulator for trade unions.

Public servants who want to revert to ‘pre-Haddington Road’ working hours – with a pro-rata salary reduction – can apply to do so between now and April 2018. The opportunity, which was negotiated by Fórsa as part of the Public Services Stability Agreement (PSSA), will then close before briefly reopening between January and April 2021.