Fórsa Work-To-Rule Begins Today, With 1,400 Members In Wicklow Over Pay Deal

More than 90,000 public service workers nationwide start industrial action over pay and the cost of living. A public sector-wide strike is planned for 14 October.

ECFM News · Wednesday 30 September 2026

Members of the Fórsa trade union begin work-to-rule action today across the civil and public service, in an escalating dispute over public service pay and the cost of living.

Fórsa says more than 90,000 members will take part. That includes staff in local and municipal authorities, health and welfare services, education, Government departments and State agencies.

Members will work strictly to contract, withdraw cooperation with new work practices and refuse duties outside their grade or agreed responsibilities.

Wicklow and its neighbours

Fórsa figures put its Wicklow membership at about 1,400, counted by work location.

• Dublin 32,685
• Kildare 3,100
• Wexford 2,200
• Wicklow 1,400
• Carlow 792

** Approximate Fórsa civil and public service members by county of work location. Source: Fórsa. **

The union says the action is part of a wider coordinated response by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Nineteen affiliated unions are moving towards industrial action in the coming days.

“Industrial action inevitable”

Fórsa general secretary Kevin Callinan, who also chairs ICTU’s Public Services Committee, said the last public service pay agreement expired at the end of June and that efforts to agree a successor came to nothing.

That refusal has made this industrial action inevitable. Kevin Callinan, general secretary, Fórsa

Mr Callinan said the Government refused from the outset to address cost-of-living pressures.

He said the Minister for Public Expenditure has described union ballots as “unnecessary” and industrial action as “unfair”, but that it is the Minister’s own refusal to discuss pay measures that has made action unavoidable.

FEMPI still on the books

Mr Callinan also pointed to the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) legislation, which remains on the statute books despite repeated commitments to repeal it.

He said it was introduced in a matter of days during the financial crisis, more than a decade and a half ago.

He said unions continue to push for it to be fully unwound but have been stonewalled, and that 'unhonoured' commitments do not inspire confidence in negotiations on a new pay deal.

This report is based on a media release from Fórsa. Further information is on the union’s industrial action hub.

Fórsa's media relations director Niall Shanahan has told East Coast FM news

''From today, more than 90,000 force of members nationwide working across local and municipal authorities, health and welfare services, education, government departments and state agencies will be taking industrial action in the form of a work to rule. That means members will work strictly to contract, withdraw cooperation with new work practices and refuse to undertake duties outside their grade or agreed responsibilities.''

Locally it may hit services hard today, as Niall added:

''In Wicklow, we have about 1,400 members taking part in this industrial action from today. That would include staff in Wicklow County Council, across health services throughout the county, and in education and training board schools, and for example, SNAs in our primary and secondary schools also.''