Plans by some ambulance personnel to stage industrial action this week have been withdrawn after the HSE threatened to take legal action.
Members of the National Ambulance Service Representative Association (NASRA), which is a branch of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), had been scheduled to take industrial action from Tuesday in a dispute over the deduction of union subscriptions at source.
It is understood that lawyers acting on behalf of the HSE wrote to PNA last week warning it would seek an injunction.
Sources said the HSE argued the row was not a trade dispute under legislation and that the health authority had not been given notice of the detail of the industrial action planned.
A spokesman for the PNA and NASRA said on Sunday the decision to withdraw the planned industrial action had been taken for “tactical reasons”.
He said it came “in the face of threats from the HSE to seek a High Court injunction against PNA to stop the planned industrial action from going ahead”.
“The NASRA Branch will hold a general meeting of members on Wednesday, June 25th to consider all available options to pursue its demands.
“The PNA and NASRA are resolute and determined to pursue the rights and entitlements of ambulance service personnel to organise, and to be represented by the trade union of their choice without obstruction from the HSE.”
The row centres on the refusal of the HSE to facilitate payroll deductions at source of union dues for new members of NASRA.
The HSE does collect subscriptions through automated deductions for other unions including Siptu, but informed sources said that as NASRA does not have union negotiating rights within the ambulance grades, it is not entitled to have subscriptions deducted at source.
NASRA has maintained it has about 500 members working in the National Ambulance Service although this figure is disputed by other unions.
