The Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) has deferred industrial action that had been due to start next Thursday after talks with the HSE were scheduled at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
It is the second time the union has postponed action in a dispute relating to the staffing levels in the country’s hospital and other mental health services.
In June, 96 per cent of PNA members who participated in a ballot on the industrial action backed it. The vote provided for action up to and including strike action, although it was not expected the union would escalate the situation to that point immediately.
At the time, the union’s general secretary, Peter Hughes, said the large vote in favour illustrated the scale of the membership’s frustration over existing staffing levels. “There are over 700 vacancies in the mental health services which is seriously impacting on the delivery of care, the depletion of frontline services and the inability to develop services,” he said.
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The union believes a key issue for its roughly 6,000 members is the number of the vacancies that relate to senior and supervisory roles.
The two sides subsequently engaged unsuccessfully at the WRC where the HSE said its management was bound by the limits on staff numbers set out in its recently published Pay and Numbers strategy.
On Friday the union said that “following contact between the two sides it was agreed to attend reconvened talks next Wednesday”.
In a statement, the HSE welcomed the agreement to return to talks. “There is a continued willingness by the HSE to keep working towards a solution that can avoid an impact on service delivery and this is best progressed by remaining under the guidance of the WRC,” it said.
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