About 12,000 clerical and administrative workers in the Health Service Executive are set to take industrial action at the start of next month in a dispute over a pause in recruitment and what they regard as excessive use of agency staff.
Fórsa trade union said 93 per cent of its members who participated in a ballot on the proposed industrial action voted in favour of it. The union said it had served three weeks’ notice of the action on the HSE.
“Last month the HSE informed the union that it was implementing a full pause on recruitment in the clerical admin stream, from Grade III and above,” said Ashley Connolly, Fórsa’s national secretary for health and welfare.
“The effect of this decision is to starve hospitals and primary care centres of essential support staff and to place the additional workload on existing staff.”
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Ms Connolly said the decision to restrict the recruitment of clerical and administrative workers would leave clinical staff short of the support they need as they respond to growing workloads.
“Contrary to perceptions, the proportion of clerical and administrative staff in the HSE is low, accounting for around just under 20 per cent of the overall workforce,” she said.
‘Failure to invest’
Ms Connolly said the HSE was “blowing vast sums of money on external consultants” and its “reliance on agency staff is an expensive and unsustainable solution. Its failure to invest in the upskilling and development of existing staff is a missed opportunity to strengthen this part of its workforce. Our members are taking this opportunity to drive these points home to the employer.”
The industrial action will initially involve a ban on voluntary overtime and non-cooperation with a range of internal reporting functions, many of them relating to finance. There will also be a refusal to engage in attempts to extend the working week, something that has been identified as a key element in the HSE’s attempts to reduce waiting times for treatment at hospitals. Fórsa said the ballot also provided for the possibility of strike action if the dispute is not resolved.
The HSE is the Republic’s largest employer with some 140,000 staff. Its chief executive, Bernard Gloster, has announced a recruitment freeze in relation to managers and administrators due to reported overspending at the organisation.
In a statement, the HSE said it recognised the right of its staff members to engage in industrial action but “continues to be available to engage in relation to any matters which arise”, including the utilisation of the State’s industrial relations mechanisms, should they be required.
