Some 31,000 nurses are preparing to strike next month unless a threat to withhold pay increases from them on June 1st is lifted.
The nurses, members of the Irish Nurses Organisation, will be balloted on strike action over the next three weeks. However, given their decision at the INO's annual conference last week to take whatever action was necessary to stop employers withholding their pay increases, there is likely to be a unanimous vote in favour of strike action.
The action, if it goes ahead, will involve all nurses withdrawing their services for up to four hours a week.
Employers, who have been served with strike notice, are threatening to withhold pay increases of between 3.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent as a result of what it terms the INO's non-co-operation with the introduction of training for healthcare assistants which would make them able to take patients' temperature, pulse and blood pressure.
INO general secretary Liam Doran said his members had identified difficulties "on professional, legal and ethical grounds" with healthcare assistants doing this work, and had sought talks with all regulatory bodies and stakeholders to air their concerns. Their request had been refused.
Instead of taking part in discussions, he said, health service employers had, without ever seeking a meeting with the INO, cited the INO for a breach of Sustaining Progress for non-co-operation with the introduction of healthcare assistants.
Furthermore, he said the INO had no difficulty with the introduction of healthcare assistants. There were already about 1,000 of them working on wards, but the INO was against employers trying to train them to do nursing duties to make up for their own failure to plan ahead for nursing shortages. The plan would result in "a dropping of standards".
He also claimed the employers' threat to withhold pay was in retaliation for the INO's highlighting of the A&E crisis.
The Psychiatric Nurses Association has supported the INO. Its general secretary, Des Kavanagh, said he was "equally shocked" by the actions of health service management, and saw it as a threat against all nurses.
Siptu's national nursing official Oliver McDonagh said if an organisation like the INO was open to negotiation he did not see why it should be refused a pay increase. He represents 9,000 nurses.
The threat of strike by the INO was, however, condemned by the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Gerard Barry, head of the health service employers within the HSE, said "exhaustive clarification" on the nature of the new role of healthcare assistants had been provided to the INO.
He felt employers could only assume the INO's opposition to the changes was based on a wish to determine the right to decide who does what within hospitals.
"Even at this stage we would urge the INO to rethink their position and engage positively with the development of this new and valuable role within our hospitals. Threats of strike action only serve to cause anxiety and worry the many vulnerable and older people within the community who depend very much on hospital services."