Fórsa and other health unions are currently balloting members, employed in community and voluntary sector agencies funded by the HSE, for industrial action.

The ballot is in response to what the unions described as a “derisory” pay offer from the employer at WRC talks at the end of July and follows years of pay disparity between these and health workers employed by the HSE.

While these agencies are funded by the state, Fórsa members employed in a range of health professional, clinical, clerical and administrative grades, are on lesser terms and conditions than their HSE counterparts.

Fórsa members in Ability West, Western Care and at Enable Ireland are among the employments selected for the ballot. The ballot remains open until Tuesday 19th September.

Fórsa national secretary Ashley Connolly said the offer made at the WRC in July, which had been sanctioned by Officials from the Department of Health, Department of Children Equality, Disability, Youth and Integration and HSE, fell far short of expectations: “The offer amounted to 5% in a single year, falling far short of the current public service agreement.

“These are workers providing professional health and social care working shoulder-to-shoulder with their public service counterparts. The employer’s offer suggests they were never that serious about resolving the growing pay disparities and the growing problem of employee retention.

“Any prospect of an agreement was essentially extinguished at the end of July, which has made this ballot for industrial action inevitable,” she said.

Ashley said the Government had been dragging its feet on the issue for years, while making conciliatory noises to health workers who urgently need pay improvements: “They haven’t seen a significant pay rise, their colleagues are walking out the door for better terms elsewhere, and there appears to be no sense of urgency at Government level, despite the growing waiting lists for the services these agencies offer.

“There’s more than a 10% pay gap that’s feeding a huge recruitment and retention crisis in these services. The reality is that if this continues, services will be shut down, and the HSE will then have to step in to provide them.

“It’s been almost a year since the health minister acknowledged the State’s role as the main, or often sole, funder of these specialist care and community-based agencies.