HSE management has temporarily waived the requirement for essential healthcare staff to take their annual leave within the current leave year.

Fórsa sought the waiver because large numbers of staff were unable to take all their leave last year because of the Covid emergency.

The temporary waiver was confirmed in an HSE circular last week. It applies to essential frontline healthcare workers who couldn’t take leave due to “the unprecedented demands on essential healthcare services.”

Fórsa official Catherine Keogh said the union had made good progress on the issue, highlighting the impact of service demand during the pandemic on healthcare workers’ ability to organise and take annual leave.

“As 2020 drew to a close it was clear that far too many healthcare staff had been unable to take leave. The pressure on the health system now is even greater than it was throughout 2020, and essential staff needed to know they would not lose the leave entitlements they were unable to take last year,” she said.

Catherine said the waiver would provide peace of mind at an especially difficult time. “It recognises the need to allow these workers to rest, and should enable them to plan a proper break when as the vaccination roll out and the suppression of Covid-19 takes effect more widely,” she said.

The circular advises that managers should, at a minimum, ensure frontline healthcare employees avail of the statutory component of their annual leave entitlement within the current leave year for health and safety reasons.