Fórsa members in health service back deal to halt industrial action over staffing row
Fórsa members voted to approve proposals to resolve the dispute over the HSE's Pay and Numbers strategy.
It comes after members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation accepted the proposals.
The proposals to end the dispute that involved more than 80,000 health services workers were brokered at Workplace Relations Commission talks.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Fórsa, Connect, Unite, and the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association agreed to suspend a work-to-rule action that was due to begin on March 31.
Fórsa said the proposals address the 'non-filing and delayed filling of vacant and suppressed health posts'. It said the Pay and Numbers strategy imposed a fixed employment ceiling across all health services.
Ashley Connolly, the union's head of Health and Welfare, said it has called on the HSE to ensure the terms of the WRC agreement are fully implemented.
'This ballot result should mark a reset of how the parties engage - in line with the spirit of the agreement - to ensure we do not find ourselves back in dispute again,' she said.
Linda Kelly, Fórsa national secretary, said the agreement will be subject to a review in six months' time.
'Until then we will be closely monitoring its progress, and we will be seeking full adherence to the commitments set out in the WRC proposals,' she said.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said members of the union had accepted proposals regarding the non-filling and delayed filling of vacant and suppressed posts in the public health service.
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'These proposals should pave the way for accelerating the filling of vacancies, stronger engagement between unions and the HSE, timely replacement of maternity leave, regularisation of agency posts and permanent posts for graduates,' she said.
She said there is a strong onus on the HSE to adhere to the agreement.
'Now that this ballot has been accepted by our members, we will immediately write to the HSE to begin the implementation of the measures included in the agreement,' she said.
A spokesperson for the HSE previously said the threatened industrial action would be a breach of industrial peace provisions in the public service pay agreement.
Official data showed there have been hikes of between 30pc and 40pc in workforce numbers at most hospitals and across all categories of staff over the last five years.
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