Hundreds of members and supporters gathered in Galway last Saturday (27th August) for Fórsa ’s Fund Us Fairly, Pay Us Right rally, which called for pay fairness for social care professionals who deliver disability, homeless and other care services in Galway's community and voluntary sector.

The family-friendly protest rally, which was addressed by Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) president and Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan, was organised Fórsa’s Galway branch to highlight pay inequality, recruitment difficulties and growing waiting lists in the community and voluntary sector.

Thousands of care professionals are employed in organisations funded by the HSE and other state agencies to deliver specialist care services.

Galway-based social care worker Rachel featured in one of Fórsa’s video messages on social media. She explained: "My colleagues and I provide a valuable frontline service to a wide range of vulnerable people. We are campaigning for better funding for our services because we are struggling to recruit talented social care professionals, people who could add real and lasting value to the services we provide. We need proper funding, and that is the responsibility of the HSE and the Government."

Fórsa organiser Helen Cousins works with social care professionals in the sector in Galway. She explained that most of the funded organisations are struggling to recruit and retain care staff, as wages and conditions in the HSE, other state services and the private sector are more attractive to workers.

She said: “Disability and homeless services in Galway are under severe pressure because workers can’t get a fair deal because their employers don’t receive adequate funding from the state.

“We have lots of members in the same professional roles in different employments, delivering the same services, who are on different rates of pay. This is because those agencies funded by the HSE cannot deliver any pay improvements.

“As a result, staff are moving on to where they can earn a better wage. These are degree qualified professionals, who are constantly upskilling.

“The effect of all this, in disability services for example, where the HSE relies on community and voluntary organisations to deliver these services, is that they can’t attract professional talent because the funding provided is inadequate. This leads to growing waiting lists for services.

“We're aware that most of these community and voluntary organisations are advocating themselves for improved funding to enable them to improve pay and conditions for their staff.

"By funding these organisations properly, the community and voluntary sector can more successfully recruit the staff they need, boost services and improve the pay and conditions of existing staff, many of whom haven’t had any sort of pay improvement in years.”

Industrial action by Fórsa members in Western Care and Ability West will take place on Thursday 22nd September, in a series of coordinated strike actions with other unions, as part of the ICTU-led Valuing Care, Valuing Communities campaign.

Watch video and related content:

Rachel: “We are struggling to recruit talented social care professionals”

Brian: “The HSE doesn’t recognise us as employees"

Three voices: Áine, Síofra and David – talk about the challenges of delivering vital services as recruiting & retaining staff becomes more difficult.

See more video and photos at #FundUsFairly on Fórsa's social media.

See also news coverage on RTE’s Six One bulletin and on TG4 Nuacht, featuring members of Fórsa’s Galway Health and Local Government branch.