FÓRSA UNION MEMBERS at Oberstown Children Detention Campus will take part in an eight-hour work stoppage on Tuesday. 

The industrial action, which will take place from 9am to 5pm, is due to a continuing dispute over resourcing and staffing at the campus.

It is the second in a series of planned weekly work stoppages, with further stoppages planned on 18 August and 25 August. 

It follows a ballot of Fórsa members, concluded in May, which backed industrial action up to and including a full withdrawal of labour. 

Staff at Oberstown have been engaged in a work-to-rule action since 25 June. 

Despite engagement between union negotiators and Oberstown management today, they were unable to reach agreement “on key issues”, Fórsa said in a statement.

The union also expressed frustration that no representative from the Department of Children was present.

Fórsa national secretary Hazel Nolan said safe staffing in Oberstown has been “a long-standing concern for staff”, adding that union members want a “lasting solution”.

“We agree with management that staff safety and the safety of the young people in Oberstown are inseparable,” she said. 

“Unfortunately, talks have broken down because Oberstown is refusing to include key elements of our claim in the business case going to the Department. This includes measures to address the recruitment difficulties facing the service.”

Nolan claimed that Oberstown management said these issues “should be dealt with separately through ‘local bargaining’, while also acknowledging that there is not enough money allocated to the local bargaining budget to resolve them”.

“Fórsa cannot enter a process when we know from the outset that it cannot resolve the claim. Our members need a genuine, long-term solution to safe staffing, and that is what we will continue to pursue.”