Health service support staff in two hospitals are staging industrial action today in support of contract cleaners who they claim have been locked out for the past five weeks by their employer.
Staff at the Meath Community Unit and St Mary's Hospital, Phoenix Park, Dublin, are to halt work in the dispute with Belgrove Contract Cleaning Services (BCSS).
The workers in dispute with the cleaning firm are members of the Contract Services Branch of SIPTU.
"It is regrettable that despite the best efforts of this Union, the health board has been unwilling to recognise its moral obligation to these workers who have been locked out of their facility for the past five weeks despite the fact that many of them have between ten and fifteen years' service," said Mr Paul Bell, SIPTU's Dublin Health Services Branch Secretary.
He said the union has asked the Eastern Regional Health Authority, which has employed a new cleaning company, to join talks to negotiate a settlement.