Fórsa will ballot members in five Section 39 employments following the collapse of talks on pay restoration.

The union’s Health Executive this week gave sanction for a ballot for industrial action to take place in five employments.

These are Enable Ireland, Child Vision, Moorehaven Centre, Delta Services and Ability West. Fórsa official Ian McDonnell explained that the five were selected as they are larger employers with the capacity, and adequate funding streams, to deliver pay restoration.

Ian said: “These are workers who were treated as public servants for the purpose of a pay cut, but are denied the pay restoration measures that we’ve secured for public servants. We’ve said consistently that it may require an industrial action in order to achieve what we’re looking for.

“In that instance, our approach is to target the more robustly funded agencies, that’s why these five employments have been chosen,” he said.

The HSE’s review of pay in in a group of 50 Section 39 agencies was published in May. The review found that average pay for Section 39 staff was cut by 4.6% after the economic crash.

Fórsa is working with officials in Siptu and Unite on a coordinated approach to achieving pay restoration in the sector.

The ballots are set to commence next week.