The Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) will inform the HSE this week of its intention to start industrial action on August 8th following what it described as “failed” talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.
The organisation, which represents some 6,000 staff across a range of hospital and community service-provision settings, had originally announced its intention to take action from July 18th but postponed the move to allow for the talks.
More than 95 per cent of members who had participated in a ballot in June had backed the proposed industrial action which included the possibility of strike action.
The union is seeking action by the HSE to fill what it says is about 700 vacant positions, a significant portion of them in key supervisory roles.
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Recruitment had been impacted first by the hiring freeze imposed across most of the HSE that was introduced towards the end of last year and more recently by the setting of new limits on numbers and budgets published in the organisation’s Pay and Numbers Strategy.
The two sides met at the WRC last Thursday to discuss the situation but the HSE is understood to have said its management was bound by the limits in the strategy document. Those put a ceiling on staff numbers in line with the number employed at the end of last year with scope for very limited additional recruitment in only a small number of specified areas.
A meeting of the union’s officer board subsequently decided to press ahead with the industrial action if no progress on the issue can be made in the meantime, although no detail of what form the action next week might initially take has been given.
Speaking at the time the original date for action was announced, the union’s general secretary, Peter Hughes, said: “Our mental health services are at a critical point” and that this needed to be recognised by the HSE.
In a statement, the HSE said it “notes the position of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) following WRC discussions at which HSE management made a number of proposals to address issues raised by the union.
“The HSE is disappointed that the PNA have indicated that they will proceed with this course of action, and therefore have stepped away from the process. There is a continued willingness by the HSE to keep working towards a solution that can avoid an impact on service delivery, and it is of the view that this is best progressed by remaining under the guidance of the WRC.”
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