Unite, which represents a range of grades across the Health Services Executive (HSE) said today (Wednesday) that members have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action over the staffing crisis resulting from the HSE’s ‘Pay and Numbers Strategy’. 

After the HSE claimed that it had lifted its recruitment ban, it emerged that vacancies are being benchmarked against the 2024 headcount, with the result that any vacancies unfilled in 2023 have effectively been lost to the health service.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The staffing crisis means that HSE workers are relentlessly overstretched while patients are not getting the service they need. Our members have no choice but to take action in defence of patient safety and their own working conditions.”

A recent survey of Unite members working for the HSE found the overwhelming majority reported that the number of vacancies in their department or team had remained the same since 31 December 2023, with workers highlighting the negative impact of staffing shortages on patient services and staff wellbeing.

Unite regional officer Eoin Drummey said: “With the worst of the winter still ahead of us, staffing pressures will increase further. Unions have exhausted all available avenues to resolve this dispute. HSE management only has a short window to avert industrial action by rolling back the discredited ‘Pay and Numbers Strategy’ and instead negotiate a safe staffing framework in the interests of workers and patients.”

Unite is part of the ICTU group of healthcare unions representing HSE workers. An agreement with health service management means that unions will be required to give three weeks’ notice of industrial action.