Health unions vindicated over recruitment freeze

The INMO nurses’ and midwives’ union has called on the Health Service Executive (HSE) to end the moratorium on recruiting frontline patient-facing staff. The HSE has revealed that emergency department attendances are up 13% compared to the same period in 2023 and 452 patients were admitted to hospital without a bed on a single day earlier this month. INMO warns that its members are bearing the brunt of public disappointment and in some cases aggression for the state of the health service while working in extremely challenging environments. The union says that staff who are leaving because of

Public service union FSC-CCOO has reacted angrily to a council of ministers decision to freeze recruitment across the general state administration as part of the government’s austerity package. The union argues that a freeze will undermine public services as many departments already have many unfilled vacancies while it further undermines the conditions of workers who are struggling to maintain services despite inadequate employment levels. FSC-CCOO is also concerned about the way the decision was announced and says that it under mines the right to collective bargaining over these kinds of