Two of the country’s largest health unions are to ballot their members on industrial action as part of a dispute with the HSE over staffing levels at the organisation.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and Fórsa are among a wider group of unions to have been critical of the limits on recruitment and overall staffing levels set out in HSE’s Pay and Numbers Strategy (PNS) which was published at the start of the summer.
The unions argue the arbitrary nature of the limits mean thousands of jobs that existed but were temporarily vacant at the end of last year were effectively suppressed when the PNS figures were put in place.
The HSE contends it had to put budgets and staffing ceilings in place, and that the numbers involved represent very substantial increases on the numbers of workers employed within the health service as recently as the start of the pandemic in 2020.
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Announcing her union would ballot for industrial action over the issue, INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said on Thursday the PNS had resulted in a “baseless recruitment moratorium that has led to further levels of unsafe staffing right across our public health service, from the community to our acute hospitals”.
“The moratorium has led to over 2,000 vacancies in the health service. This means that today, tonight and tomorrow services and wards across Ireland are understaffed, which is having a detrimental impact on patient care.
“The lack of action by the HSE has left us with no other option but to now ballot our members for industrial action. Over 2,000 much-needed nursing and midwifery posts have now been effectively abolished by the HSE. This means the safety of our members at work is severely compromised and their ability to provide safe, appropriate and timely care is not possible.”
Fórsa, which represents a wide range of workers and grades among its 30,000 members across the health service, is also to ballot its members on taking action.
“While the HSE may maintain that the number of employees across the organisation has never been higher, the reality is that, against the backdrop of increased services and higher demands from an ageing demographic with more complex needs, the HSE remains under-resourced,” said the union’s senior health sector organiser Ashley Connolly.
The ballots are due to take place in the coming weeks.
The HSE said it was “regrettable that the unions have given notice of protests and intention to ballot against the background of an additional €1.5bn for the health service in 2024, a planned €1.2bn increase in the health budget in 2025, and the certainty regarding future reliance on 2024 non-core funding”.
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