A potential hospital ward attendants' strike which would have affected services to some of the most incapacitated people in hospitals in Dublin, has been averted following the intervention of the Labour Court.
Industrial action was planned for 48 hours on this Thursday and Friday in pursuit of an 8 per cent pay increase made in 2000 to attendants in major Dublin teaching hospitals.
The Chairman of the Labour Court, Mr Finbarr Flood, invited both parties involved in the dispute - SIPTU and the Health Services Employers Agency - to informal talks in the Labour Court on September 2nd.
SIPTU said balloting of non-nursing staff in support of the dispute has been suspended, pending the outcome of these talks.
The psychiatric and long-stay hospitals that with staff involved in the dispute are St Colmcille's, St Mary's Hospital, Phoenix Park, Bru Chaoimhin Home, Cork Street, St Ita's Psychiatric Services, Portrane, St Brendan's, Grangegorman, and Clonskeagh Hospital.