HSE admin staff to stop answering phones and emails as dispute escalates

Fórsa's Ashley Connolly with protesting HSE staff outside CUH. Picture: Chani Anderson

HSE admin workers plan to stop answering work telephones and emails in a series of rolling bans during January in escalation of an industrial dispute between the Fórsa trade union and the HSE.

Industrial action involving a go-slow on certain tasks began in October in response to an announcement of a recruitment freeze for managerial and clerical roles. 

The freeze has since been extended to almost all HSE hiring.

On Friday, Fórsa informed its members they should not answer office or mobile phones and work emails for a specific period.

This will affect work in hospitals and primary care centres as well as HSE headquarters between January 11 and 26. 

The action is expected to hit different sites on different days. Some voluntary organisations funded by the HSE will also be affected.

A number of critical units will not be affected, including emergency departments, intensive care units, surgical theatres, cancer units, and mental health admission units.

Information backlog

In a more silent impact of the action, politicians are struggling to get information from key departments. 

These include the HSE, Department of Health, and Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

They can usually put in queries known as parliamentary questions (PQs) to get data, as well as making direct representations on behalf of constituents.

However, as staff responsible for answering these queries have been taking part in the Fórsa action, a backlog is growing.

Up to the end of November some 1,055 PQs to those three health bodies had not yet been responded to. At the same time, some 1,144 TD representations had not yet been responded to.

The Department of Health said, in data released to Labour TD Seán Sherlock, that these figures relate only to the three named bodies.

Fórsa head of health and welfare Ashley Connolly said its members are not to blame for the HSE budget overspend which led to the freeze being implemented.

We require a commitment that any post that becomes vacant is filled: A 'one out/one in' approach.

“[This] would allow us to engage on all other issues relating to recruitment, the use of agency into promotional posts, and the extensive overuse of external private contractors and consultants," she said.