Healthcare unions agree to suspend work-to-rule action

Tomas Doherty

Healthcare unions are to suspend work-to-rule action that was planned to begin on Monday.

The move follows 22 hours of intense negotiations at the Workplace Relations Commission across the weekend.

HSE services will operate normally throughout the country on Monday after agreement on processes for reviewing staff vacancies and for accelerating recruitment to vacant posts.

Nurses and midwives will now be balloted on proposals to develop and improve recruitment policies and workforce planning.

Phil Ní Sheaghdha, general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), said challenges around safe staffing had intensified over the last 18 months.

She said the proposals should ensure that vacant posts will be filled and the approval process for recrutiment will be streamlined.

"Nurses and midwives will now be balloted on the proposals. They will want to be assured by their employer that the delivery of safe staffing is an immediate priority," she said.

Ashley Connolly, head of Fórsa’s health and welfare division, said the decision was made to stand down industrial action to allow time to consider the proposals.

Eoin Drummey of Unite said the proposals would be subject to a ballot of members.

Brian Mc Avinue, of Connect Trade Union, added there was "still a body of work to be done on the commitments made on delivering direct employment."

HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster said he was very pleased the threat of disruption was lifted. "Our commitment to all of our workforce and all representative bodies is reflected in the agreement," he said.

The dispute was focused on staffing levels across the health service and the setting last year of a ceiling on total pay and staff numbers.

The unions said the limits set out were not adequate given the service’s overall needs, and argued many existing posts vacant at the end of 2023 were in effect "suppressed" due to the arbitrary manner of the process.

The HSE said its staff numbers had never been higher, that the equivalent of 28,500 full-time staff had been added to its workforce since the start of 2020, an increase of almost a quarter, while more than 6,000 additional staff will be recruited this year despite the limits set.