Three weeks’ notice for industrial action in the HSE and Section 38 hospitals has been served on Monday, 10 March 2025.
There will be strict work-to-rule in place for all Fórsa members in the HSE and Section 38s, until further notice. Instructions to members were issued on Monday, 10 March.
Here is the full list of instructions for industrial action that was issued to members on Monday, 10 March:
Until further notice from the union, you should:
- Adhere strictly to the terms of your contract of employment.
- Not work outside your agreed contract working hours (excludes flexitime).
- Not work overtime or work up additional hours on TOIL (Time Off in Lieu).
- Members should decline, unless normally rostered, to work over weekends and/ or bank holidays.
- Unless contracted to do so members should not provide on call services out of hours.
- Members should not use their work allocated mobile phone or check work emails outside of their normal working hours unless it is for emergency purposes.
In addition, members should:
- Strictly adhere to the rules and procedures governing your post.
- Not undertake tasks, functions or responsibilities associated with any vacant post.
- Not undertake tasks, functions or responsibilities associated with any post that the employer has failed to replace due to maternity leave.
- Not carry out the duties of a higher grade.
- Not take line management instruction and/or direction or recognise a reporting relationship to an agency worker.
- Not engage with, meet, report to, or provide any information to external private management consultants, often categorised as HSE advisors. Not cooperate with any management consultants/ HSE Advisor/ external agency in relation to IFMS (Integrated Financial Management System).
- Not cooperate with external agency/ consultancy staff/ external companies employed to work on behalf of the Health Service Executive on a variety of programs, for example Digital for Care Program, HSE Health App, Enterprise Wireless Program, AMP, CISO Office, CTTO Office and/ or a/any other new/ reform programs.
- Not engage in the Technology and Transformation roll out of a/ any new/ reform programs in HSE Nationally and/ or in the HSE Regional Health Areas.
- Not engage with any proposals in relation to the extended working week.
Fórsa members are aligned with their colleagues in the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, who will also serving notice of industrial action. We will be coordinating closely with them in workplaces through our Joint Organising Committees across each of the six health regions.
What happens next?
Notice will be issued to both the HSE and Section 38 employers and members.
If a resolution to the dispute is not found during the work-to-rule period, an escalation of industrial action will begin. This will be considered on a weekly basis by the Divisional Executive Committee.
When and what type of action will be decided by the Dispute Committee of the Health and Welfare Divisional Executive Committee. This committee is made up of the elected representatives of union members.
Why are healthcare workers taking industrial action?
1000s of vacant posts were ‘decommissioned’ in 2024. With the stroke of a pen, any post vacant on 31 December 2023 was suppressed, despite being needed to provide patient services. This unilateral decision by the CEO of the HSE came after months of a recruitment embargo which had inflated the number of vacancies.
No plan has been shared with staff on how to fill the now-permanent gaps across services and regions across the country. In fact, information on how many jobs were decommissioned wasn’t (and still hasn’t been) shared.
Union members had already gone out on industrial action and came back to the table to negotiate when the recruitment embargo was in place for clerical and admin staff. Members negotiated in good faith and this good faith was disregarded by the employer. Protests were held around the country highlighting the staffing problems. Workers raised the alarm continuously.
But senior management recklessly pushed ahead without listening to the people who provide the services. They have relied for years on staff going above and beyond. They seem to believe that staff would yet again cover the work of 2,3,4 or more people to keep the health service running.
But there’s nothing left to give.
The message is clear from healthcare union members from across Ireland: Services are suffering, patients are suffering, and they are pushed beyond our limits. There are no plans in place from senior management that will actually deal with this. It’s now up to those on the frontlines to save the health service.
Background to the HSE industrial action and dispute
- May 2023: A ‘recruitment pause’ was unilaterally imposed on Grade VIII posts and above.
- July 2023: The ‘recruitment pause’ was imposed on all Clerical Admin & Managerial grades across the HSE. At the same time, hundreds of millions were being spent on private agencies and private for-profit consultancy firms.
- August 2023: Fórsa members that were impacted vote overwhelmingly for industrial action.
- September 2023: Parties come back to the WRC and negotiate a Framework Agreement on this issue. Industrial action is suspended.
- October 2023: Bernard Gloster announces a ‘full recruitment freeze’ across the HSE. In response, Fórsa members begin their industrial action.
- February 2024: Industrial action is suspended following agreement on a series of proposals agreed by the HSE and Fórsa. These include, amongst others, that:
- The HSE agrees to replace positions that fall vacant and which are necessary to continually meet service needs.
- In the context of vacancies that arose between 1 September 2023 and 13 December 2023 and remain to be filled, the parties agree to reviewing them as part of the Framework process.
- The parties agree to resume engagement to develop a specific Framework Agreement in relation to the recruitment of management and admin staff. This engagement to resume as a matter of priority with a view to being concluded no later than 8 March 2024.
- March through to July 2024: All health trade unions attempt to engage HSE management on the recruitment embargo. Told weekly we would receive the new Pay and Numbers Strategy which would address concerns.
- July 2024: The Pay and Numbers Strategy is presented as a fait accompli to unions via a Microsoft Teams Call. No strategy document is provided, only a small number of slides. No evidence is provided to justify the decommissioning of posts. Unions are told each REO is now responsible for managing staffing and that if they want, they can use vacant posts in one service to fill gaps in another. Unions make multiple requests for information gathered by the HSE in the preparation of the strategy. The HSE denies requests for information on “how many posts disappeared” despite FOI requests.
- August 2024: Survey of 4,000 Fórsa healthcare members found that 88% of respondents confirmed vacancies in their departments since December 2023.
- October/ November 2024: Lunchtime protests by staff across the HSE and Section 38 voluntary hospitals begin, in response to the impact on service provision. This is alongside a ballot for industrial action. This includes Clerical Admin & Managerial Grades, HSCPs and Pharmacy staff working in the HSE and across Section 38 voluntary hospitals. Members again vote overwhelmingly (93.6%) for industrial action.
- December 2024: Ballots continue across other health unions. The results are notified to the employer.
- January 2025: Negotiations for the Programme for Government take place.
- February 2025: Joint Organising Committees for each of the new Health Regions are set up, jointly across Fórsa and INMO.
- March 2025: Notice to be served, on 10 March, of industrial action across the HSE and Section 38 hospitals, by Fórsa and INMO.