The chief executive of the HSE has sought the intervention of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in a bid to avert industrial action which threatens to cause widespread disruption to hospital and other healthcare services from the start of next week.
The move follows unsuccessful talks between Bernard Gloster and senior officials from the five unions involved on Monday morning.
After the meting, which had been requested by Mr Gloster last Thursday, the unions, Fórsa, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Unite, Connect and the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association (MLSA) accused HSE management of failing to take the threat of widespread disruption seriously.
The unions represent some 80,000 healthcare staff due to take part in the industrial action. They described the HSE approach to the talks as “lax” and “cavalier”.
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Notice of the action was served by the unions two weeks ago and last week the HSE requested talks intended to address some of the issues involved in the dispute, which is centred on staffing levels.
“Despite asking trade unions to meet this morning in a bid to explore options for avoiding planned action, the Health Service Executive is demonstrating a lax approach to upcoming industrial action which is to begin next Monday,” a spokesperson said.
“Unions have given the employer over three weeks’ notice to plan around what will be mass disruption to the health service, yet no formal derogations have been sought by the employer or no real contingency planning has been done.
“The fact of the matter is this dispute will begin next Monday. The HSE have not taken this process seriously and have chosen to walk away before matters can be dealt with.”
Responding to the accusation, however, the HSE said Mr Gloster had attended the meeting “in good faith but unfortunately no progress was made”.
There was some surprise at the tone of the union statement and it said separate talks intended to address which services are likely to be affected in the event the action proceeds would go ahead and what contingencies might be possible would go ahead as planned on Monday afternoon.
Mr Gloster said “any industrial action would be very regrettable, particularly in the context of possible negative impacts on the public.”
The HSE, it was said, would now await the intervention of the WRC although unions initially said they had not received any invitation to talks and the possibility of the commission’s involvement had not been raised at Monday morning’s meeting.
The dispute is focused on measures introduced over the past year by the HSE to control budgets. Its Pay and Numbers Strategy, under which the number of staff employed by the organisation has been capped at just over 133,000 this year, is seen as a necessary move to control costs at an organisation where budget overruns have come to be regarded by Government as an annual occurrence.
It points to substantial increases in staff numbers in recent years and contends staff in key areas continue to be hired despite the limits set.
The unions argue the manner in which the limits started to be set last year, based on a census of staff on December 31st, 2023, was arbitrary. They say about 3,000 posts were effectively lost because they were vacant at the time.
The HSE argues thousands of others that were not properly funded at the time were regularised.
Separately, the Psychiatric Nurses’ Association, which is not affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and so not involved in Monday morning’s talks, is due to start industrial action this Wednesday. The union says talks are still ongoing but the scheduled work to rule is currently expected to proceed.
