Fórsa members vote 96% in favour of industrial action including strike action Tue, 01 Sep, 2026 – 15:53Cillian Sherlock and Cate McCurry
Members of Ireland’s largest public sector union have voted overwhelmingly in support of industrial action.
Fórsa announced on Tuesday that 96% of balloted members had voted in favour of industrial action up to and including full-scale strike action – warning “we’re probably in for a long haul”.
Announcing the result, Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan said he believed it was the largest-ever strike ballot in Ireland.
Speaking at the union’s headquarters in Dublin, Mr Callinan said there was a 72% turnout of the more than 80,000 members balloted.
He said: “We will be liaising with other public service committee affiliates of the ICTU in relation to other common actions that might be taken right across the public service by the various trade unions involved.”
It comes after SIPTU announced on Monday that members voted 97% in favour of strike action and 98% for industrial action.
The previous public service agreement expired in June and talks with Government representatives for public a sector pay deal have yet to resume.
Fórsa opened a ballot for industrial action among 90,000 workers, which includes clerical workers, administration staff and managers in the health sector; civil servants; local government and State agency workers; and non-teaching workers in education, such as school secretaries and special needs assistants.
Mr Callinan, who also chairs the Public Services Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), said Fórsa remained “willing to negotiate”.
“For those kind of agreements to work, they have to protect the living standards of the people that they cover, and we pointed out in the discussions that over the last five or six years, the pay of the average public servant has fallen significantly behind prices,” he said.
“And that it was essential on this occasion, if there was to be an agreement, that we had an understanding that that would be addressed.”
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Fórsa said close to 60,000 members backed industrial action in pursuit of a better deal on pay – representing a turnout of 72.6%.
Of those balloted, 96.6% backed industrial action – which could affect health, local government and education services, as well as Government departments and State agencies.
Mr Callinan said the result is “an emphatic mandate” from public service workers, adding: “The Government has left them with no credible option but to prepare for industrial action by failing to engage seriously on pay after the expiry of the last agreement”.
Fórsa said different forms of industrial action are likely to take place in different workplaces in the coming weeks, ranging from work-to-rule and the withdrawal of cooperation with overtime, and will include the possibility of full strike action.
The union’s national executive (NEC) will meet on Wednesday to sanction the union’s plans for industrial action.
Mr Callinan said public sector workers “did not take this decision lightly” but said the “current position is not sustainable”.
At a press conference announcing the result, Mr Callinan warned the dispute could be a protracted affair without a shift in the Government response.
“The department line has been the same for the last three months, but it’s failing to grasp the issues that we presented them with in June, and to make any response to them.
“So, unless we get a shift in that, I think our belief is that we’re probably in for a long haul, a very long dispute, one that will have very serious effects right across the public sector.”
Asked what the union’s bottom line was for any negotiation, he said a Government offer had to address the pay “gap that has emerged” as well as “whatever we might be facing in the future”.
Asked to quantify the existing shortfall, he said it was “very conservatively” at least 5%.
Earlier in the week, Siptu members employed in health, local government and State agencies, who were also balloted phase, supported strike action.
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