Fórsa members working in healthcare in the community and voluntary sector (Section 10, 39, 40 and 56 funded organisations) have voted in favour of the terms of a new pay agreement, negotiated at the WRC in March.
The deal was approved in a ballot of Fórsa members, with just over 86% returning a vote in favour of the new pay agreement, which the union said followed months of challenging negotiations, and building on the terms of an October 2023 agreement.
The agreement acknowledges that the pay of some workers in the community and voluntary organisations has fallen behind equivalent grades in public sector organisations.
The pay terms of the new agreement are valued at 9.25% over two years (October 2024 to October 2026):
2024
- A general round increase in annualised basic salary of 2.25% backdated to 1st October 2024
2025
- A general round increase in annualised basic salary of 1% on 1st April 2025
- A general round increase in annualised basic salary of 2% on 1st November 2025
2026
- A general round increase in annualised basic salary of 2% on 1st April 2026
- A general round increase in annualised basic salary of 2% on 1st October 2026.
- The agreement was secured by unions after more than ten years of campaigning for better pay and conditions for workers in the community and voluntary sector.
Fórsa’s head of Health and Welfare, Ashley Connolly, said unions want the funding bodies to ensure a speedy transfer of funds to ensure members received their pay increases in a timely manner: “These pay terms are more than a decade in the making.
“While the terms acknowledge that pay for some in the sector has fallen behind public sector levels and allows for future increases in public pay agreements to be applied to the community and voluntary sector, we need to see the funding bodies move quickly to ensure our members receive these pay improvements as they fall due.
“We witnessed delays in funding during the implementation phase of the last pay agreement. This can’t happen again. The sector continues to deal with challenges of staff retention, but it will only work if the terms are delivered on time,” she said.
Fórsa recommended members vote ‘Yes’ in the ballot. The new pay deal also allows for funding to be adjusted to allow for application of equivalent general round pay adjustments, as they’re provided for in any successor agreements to the current Public Service Agreement.
The 2023 WRC agreement provides for an independent data gathering exercise to be conducted over the next eight months. Ms Connolly said this process would be crucial in establishing “a shared understanding” of the sector and that, once complete, the parties would re-engage no later than 1st March next year to discuss the outcome of the data gathering process. She called on the relevant bodies to ensure this process commences without delay.
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