PUBLIC SERVICE UNION Fórsa has warned industrial action will continue over the winter if an agreement is not reached in the ongoing pay dispute. 

More than 300,000 public sector workers are set to engage in industrial action on Wednesday in the biggest public sector strike since the height of the financial crisis in 2009. 

The strike is part of wider industrial action which began on 30 September amid a dispute over pay after the collective pay agreement covering public sector workers expired.

A second strike day is scheduled for Wednesday 21 October. 

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Áine Kerr, Fórsa General Secretary Kevin Callinan said that workers “have no choice” but to strike over pay.

Public sector unions have accused the government of failing to make any meaningful negotiations on pay.

Funding of €1.2 billion was allocated in Budget 2027 for a new pay agreement, but unions have said that the allocation is not enough to solve the issue.

“They want to talk about modernisation and reform, they want it all to be within fiscal parameters and they want to talk about workplace change,” Callinan said. 

He added that it “seems that a precondition is only a precondition when workers want to talk about it”.

He said the negotiations must address the cost-of-living pressures facing workers in both the public and private sectors, many of whom are “struggling to make ends meet”.

Callinan also stressed that measures must be put in place to provide support during the second half of the year.

In addition to the strikes next week, he noted that there may be “lots of industrial action through the winter”if an agreement cannot be reached.