Fórsa has sought a meeting with HSE chief Bernard Gloster, following the breakdown of talks at the WRC (Workplace Relations Commission) on Wednesday. 

The WRC talks had been aimed at finding a solution which would allow the union and HSE management to address the increasing number of vacancies within the HSE, and issues arising from the HSE’s unilateral imposition of a moratorium on recruitment. 

Fórsa members have been engaged in a sustained industrial action of non-cooperation since 6th October, and the union continues to plan for telephone bans and lunchtime protests early next month. Ahead of a final decision by the union to further escalate its action, Fórsa’s head of Health and Welfare Ashley Connolly contacted Bernard Gloster, seeking a direct meeting with the HSE chief executive.

Ashley said the union had proposed, at an earlier meeting, that management continue to replace previously sanctioned posts included in the HSE’s service plan for 2023, but that this was rejected by the HSE. 

Fórsa attended a third meeting this week, at the WRC, with the HSE. Ashley said the hearing lasted less than an hour: “The process concluded without agreement, and there's no basis to continue the engagement.  

“HSE management had requested that Fórsa lift its ongoing industrial action, on the basis that there are only five weeks left in the year.  We rejected that request, and the industrial action - including our work-to-rule - will continue,” she said.

Ashley also challenged the claim, made last month by Gloster, that the recruitment of additional staff is being ‘capped, not cut.’ Gloster made the comment during his appearance at the Oireachtas health committee on 24th October. 

Ashley commented: “The current recruitment ban has had a direct effect on several vacated posts that were due to be refilled under the current service plan. Suppressing these posts is effectively a job cut, not a cap on further recruitment.”

She also questioned the CEO’s assertion that ‘existing levels of service provision will continue’ against the backdrop of further restrictions which were put in place late last week.  

Since 6th October, we have issued two instructions Fórsa members in clerical and admin grades in the HSE and Section 38 organisations have been instructed:        

• Not to undertake tasks, functions or responsibilities associated with any vacant post
• Not to carry out the duties of a higher grade and strictly adhere to the rules and procedures governing their post
• To boycott all engagement in relation to HSE Health Regions also known as Regional Health Areas (RHAs)
• Not to engage or attend any working groups, planning, restructuring, consultation, scoping, discussion meetings / forums in relation to all change programs underway across the HSE and / or Section 38s. (e.g., RHAs, HSPA, NiSRP)
• Not to engage or participate in any meetings in relation to the further roll out of the IFMS change program including the roll-out of implementation group 2, 3, 4 and 5
• Not to return national information / data returns e.g., KPIs, Accident & Emergency statistics, delayed discharges, monthly activities etc. (including non-engagement in online forums and / or teleconference in relation to same)
• Not to engage with Finance and HR Information processes (including non-engagement in online forums and / or teleconference in relation to same)
• Not to cooperate with regulatory bodies e.g., HIQA
• Withdrawal from all national committees
• Not to engage with, meet, report to, or provide any information to external private consultants or HSE advisors
• Not to participate or engage with performance achievement / management
• Not to engage with all political forums and / or processes (PQs etc)
• Not to engage with any proposals in relation to the extended working week

The action escalated from Friday 27th October 2023. Since then, members have been advised to:

• Decline, unless normally rostered, to work over weekends and / or bank holidays
• Not use their work allocated mobile phone outside of their normal working hours unless it is for emergency purposes
• Not take direction or report to an agency worker from Grade V or above
• Not work outside their agreed contract working hours unless in receipt of agreed overtime rates (this does not include flexi time).
• Not engage in communications with all non-HSE personnel in the CTTO and CISO Offices
• Not cooperate with HealthIrl Computer Domain Migration Project and /or other reform projects.

Should members have any questions about the industrial action they should contact their local branch, consult the FAQ, or email healthandwelfareinfo@forsa.ie 

Following the launch of new HSE Roadmap for Service Improvement 2023 – 2026, Disability Services for Children and Young People on Thursday 24th October by Ministers Roderic O’Gorman and Anne Rabbitte, Fórsa issued a non-cooperation instruction to members  working in the provision of Disability Services. 

The union issued the instruction due to serious concern about the lack of consultation with members, service users, parents, families, and relevant professional bodies, and stated that while the development of the roadmap is welcome, the resources available for its implementation are inadequate, not least due to the ongoing and significant recruitment and retention challenges within children's disability network teams (CDNTs).

This week, in advance of the parties reconvening under the auspices of the WRC, Fórsa national secretary Linda Kelly issued a comprehensive letter to Bernard O’Regan, HSE Head of Operations – Disabilities Community Operations, outlining the “significant and interconnected” issues in dispute. These include: 

• The purposeful exclusion of members, who are frontline staff, from the development of the Roadmap.
• Plans to use private service providers for the provision of public services. Fórsa will not accept any attempt to privatise disability services.
• The absence of a recommendation for an evidence-based workforce plan. It will be impossible to deliver the Roadmap without an appropriately staffed service.
• Uncertainty around clinical governance which is a key driver in staff leaving the service.
• The central focus on AON throughout the roadmap reinforces the current system, which is driving families to AON to access services, though that is not a requirement.
• The introduction of a large number of therapy assistants. 

Ms Kelly said: “It is disappointing that we have been forced to place ourselves in dispute due to the myopic approach of management on the development of the Roadmap. What could have been the beginning of a positive new chapter for the service is now, once again, an issue fraught with stress and tension of staff and for families accessing the service.”

The Health and Welfare Divisional Executive Committee will meet on the 29th November and will discuss and agree an appropriate course of action as the next steps in this dispute. 

The Fórsa Skills Academy hosts two seminars each year to provide support and guidance to Branch Training Officers as they seek to build capacity at branch level and support workplace representatives.

The next session will take place on Thursday 7th December in the James Joyce Centre in Dublin 1 from 11am – 3.30pm, with festive refreshments to sustain you throughout. We have a packed programme of information and guest talks on a wide range of topics, including:

• handling data accurately in your training officer role
• guiding members and representatives through the application process
• presentation from the project manager of an award-winning mentoring programme
• learning about the importance of neurodiverse training as workers and providers of public services
• discussion of how best we can support you in your role locally
• publishing the results of the recent training survey.

Paid release can be secured for participants so the earlier you register the better. 

So come along and join us for an informative and enjoyable event, and you never know there could be some festive surprises in store! 

To apply just click through the link and enter your details.

The Annual General Meeting of the Fórsa Retired Members Group will take place on Wednesday, November 22nd at 10:45 a.m. in, Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1.

All retired members are welcome to attend.

Motions for discussion and nominations for the positions of Chair, Secretary and Treasurer are invited, via email to: retiredmembersbranchsec@forsa-rep.ie to arrive no later than Thursday, November 16th at 5:00.

Agenda, notice of motions and nominations will issue and will then be available via the Retired Members page on the Forsa website. A limited number of paper copies will be available on the day.

On Thursday 9th November Fórsa hosted the Irish book launch of Dr Jane McAlevey's acclaimed masterclass on participatory social change Rules to Win By.

Published in March 2023, Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations, co-authored with Abby Lawlor, was described in the New Yorker magazine as "part theory and part nuts and bolts; its focus is McAlevey’s strategy of using big, open bargaining sessions to secure winning contracts."

Described as a book "for workers, trade unionists, racial justice and climate campaigners, academics, policymakers and everyone who wants a more fair and democratic society," Rules to Win By is McAlevey's fourth book, crafted for those striving for social, economic and political change in an era of polarisation and the proliferation of big lies, and drawing upon skills and lessons honed in pitched battles against experienced and ruthless union busters.”

McAlevey's life and work as a union organiser, author and academic was the focus of a feature in The New Yorker last month: How Jane McAlevey Transformed the Labor Movement.

Fórsa’s Head of Strategic Change Ryan McKinney said: “Jane McAlevey’s work has had a transformative impact on the trade union movement. Fórsa are privileged to work with Jane as we continue our work to build a strong, relevant union that wins for its members.”

The 19 public sector unions, affiliated to the ICTU Public Services Committee (PSC), will meet this morning (Friday) to consider the invitation to public service pay talks. The invitation, to enter negotiations on a new pay agreement, was issued by the Minister for Public Expenditure this week. This morning’s meeting of affiliates will review recent developments and determine the criteria to establish if there’s a basis for a new public service pay agreement with the Government. 

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan, who chairs the PSC, said he noted the comments, made by the Minister for Public Expenditure in his invitation, that an agreement has the potential to provide certainty and stability in a ‘normalised industrial relations environment.’

Kevin commented: “We’ve identified the normalisation of 'post-crisis' public service industrial relations as a necessary step to the successful negotiation of another public service agreement. That means removing the stranglehold of the Department of Public Expenditure, which is currently preventing the normal operation of the voluntarist system of industrial relations.

“Our priority objective is to secure appropriate pay measures in response to continuing cost-of-living pressures on working families. But the type of agreement favoured by the minister, as he described in media interviews this week, is really only achievable if we establish normalised industrial relations,” he said.

Kevin said the affiliate unions want a focus on the stabilisation of any future agreement, through mechanisms to resolve outstanding issues affecting public service grades, groups and categories: “Multi-annual deals provide a high degree of cost certainty, and stability, for the government. While we’re willing to consider such a deal, we made it clear months ago that any deal would need to contain sufficient flexibility to address issues affecting specific groups of workers,” he said.

The current public service pay agreement, Building Momentum, expires in just over six weeks (31st December). Unions have continued to emphasise the need for a successor agreement to be negotiated and ratified before the current deal expires.

Tomorrow at 1pm a National Demonstration for Palestine will take place, meeting at the Garden of Remembrance before proceeding to the back of Leinster House on Merrion Square.

Led by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Trade Union Friends of Palestine are among the organisers of this demonstration, which aims to be the biggest Palestine solidarity demonstration in Irish history.

As the situation in Gaza deteriorates daily Fórsa stands with all those calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Members can collect Fórsa flags and banners on Saturday at 12.30pm from the Fórsa offices at Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1.

Contact Kevin Donoghue, Fórsa's Director of Campaigns for more information.

Fórsa Youth are holding their annual charity table quiz next Thursday, 23rd November, in Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1.

The cost for a table of four is €100. A pop-up bar will be available, finger food and refreshments will be provided. A raffle with some great prizes will also be held on the night. Registration opens from 6pm, with the quiz starting at 7pm. You can book a table here.

This year’s quiz is in aid of Trucks for Peace, a global fundraising initiative that aims to help build a stable and lasting peace in Colombia. Fórsa is affiliated with Justice for Colombia, an organisation set up in response to the high levels of violence against trade unionists, human rights defenders and community activists in Colombia. The project faces huge challenges in remote areas of Colombia where inequality is an extremely serious and complex problem.

After the 2016 peace agreement in Columbia former FARC guerrillas established co-operatives as part of the transition. The co-ops produce a range of products, including clothing, coffee and beer. However, in remote parts of Columbia they face major challenges getting their products to markets.

Infrastructure is poor and transport is essential. This fundraiser aims to enable local worker cooperative 'De Mano en Mano' to commercialise and sell their products through access to decent transport in the form of a truck.

Funds raised by the table quiz will be used to support Trucks for Peace in their mission to provide long-term sustainable livelihoods for those involved in the peace process in Columbia.

All are welcome to join the quiz and if your branch is not able to make it, donations are also encouraged.

Contact forsayncsecretary@forsa-rep.ie for more information or to make a donation.

Did you know that you can avail of cheaper home and car insurance, along with retail discounts as part of your Fórsa membership?

At this seasonally expensive time access to reduced insurance offers and discount schemes is on everyone’s wish list! This November’s Lunch and Learn will provide you with all the details on Fórsa membership benefits directly from our providers Cornmarket and the WRKIT Group Discount Scheme.

These schemes allow members to avail of significantly better protections, along with great savings on insurance and other discounts.

As always, this Lunch & Learn is open to all our members, so please spread the word of this event far and wide. 

To register for November’s live Lunch and Learn – please click on the link here.

Members are encouraged to save the date for the Fórsa Global Solidarity Spring School, which will take place on the 1st and 2nd of March 2024, in Nerney’s Court, Dublin 1.

The school will provide a unique opportunity for interested members to discuss a range of international, trade union and human rights issues. We will hear about projects that the Fórsa actively fund across the world, and it will also be an opportunity to hear about Forsa’s global solidarity work.

The two-day event will kick off on the Friday afternoon and will feature panel discussions and guest speakers on topics including the war on Palestine and the rise of the far right, amongst others.

Further information, and a link to register will circulate to members early in the new year. In the meantime, if you have any queries, you can email them to internationalsolidarity@forsa.ie.

We look forward to welcoming you to the next Global Solidarity Spring School.

Travel Insurance for Fórsa Members

Did you know KennCo Insurance offer Fórsa members a special discount on travel insurance? As a Fórsa member you can protect your holidays with annual multi-trip cover for just €64.90, which includes cover for you, your spouse/partner and dependent children.*

Main Features

• Annual Multi-trip cover

• Worldwide

• 365-day, 24 hour emergency medical assistance service during your insured trip

• Cancellation & Curtailment – up to €6,000

• Lost Baggage – up to €3,000

• Medical & Emergency Expenses – up to €10,000,000

• Personal Accident – up €30,000

• Travel Delay and Disruption – up to €6,000

• Public Liability – up to €2,500,0000

• Winter Sports & Scuba Diving Included

• Cruise cover up to €300

Terms, conditions and excesses will apply.

*Dependent children up to and including 17 years old only or if still in full time education up to and including 22 years old. Applies to individuals 70 years and under only. You must be living with your partner for at least 6 months. Terms and conditions will apply.

Get more information and a secure quote HERE. 

KennCo Underwriting Ltd T/A KennCo Insurance is regulated by The Central Bank of Ireland.