The ICTU-led group of unions has contacted the new disabilities minister, Norma Foley TD, seeking the recommencement of the adjourned WRC negotiations on pay in health service employments in the community and voluntary sector (sections 39, 56, 10). 

Norma Foley was appointed as Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth in January. Unions have continued to pursue the completion of a talks process aimed at creating pay parity between healthcare workers in the sector and their equivalents in the HSE and Section 38 employments.  

The 2023 WRC agreement provided for a process to re-establish the link to public service pay terms, as the community and voluntary sector continues with the challenge of recruiting and retaining skilled healthcare workers. 

In a letter to the new Minister, the group of unions outlined the status of the process, which had effectively paused because of the General Election and the formation of a new government. 

The unions said that while some progress had been made in negotiations: “It has not been possible to reach a final agreement.” 

Unions advised the Minister that government representatives had informed them last December that it had not been possible for the departments involved to achieve any change to their existing mandate for these negotiations and advised the process would pause “until departments are in a position to get a renewed mandate from an incoming Government and new Ministers.” 

ICTU added that the new Programme for Government includes commitments to “consider measures to attract and retain staff in the disability sector” to consider the development of “a new workforce plan to address immediate staffing shortages and longer-term needs” and to “work with the voluntary sector through industrial relations mechanisms and other processes to progress pay issues that affect the delivery of disability services and the long-term viability of organisations within the sector.” 

On that basis, the unions have sought confirmation that the Minister will seek the recommencement of the adjourned WRC negotiations, and that the Minister plans to provide her officials “with a mandate that will lead to an agreement.” 

Fórsa national secretary Ashley Connolly said the unions were ready to go back into talks: “There is an urgency among the unions to get the job done. Fórsa members continue to work in an environment where staff retention continues to be a major challenge,” she said. 

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