Health service management has proposed that all new staff appointed should work more flexible rosters which would see them start work earlier in the morning, or finish later in the evening.
Management also said that it wanted union agreement to allow local discussions to take place with existing employees "where there is a defined and urgent need to implement revised work practices".
As part of new reform proposals tabled yesterday, management also wants Saturdays and Sundays to be included as part of the basic working week for certain grades of staff.
In proposals given to health service unions yesterday, management said that it was clear "that in certain situations attendance patterns do not reflect value for money, nor indeed are they reflective of a service which operates on a 24/7 basis".
"Management is now seeking agreement to conduct a review of service delivery arrangements with a view to eliminating inefficient attendance arrangements and implementing attendance patterns which will assist improved operational performance and service provision," it said.
It said that the grades that would be affected by the proposed reforms included non-consultant hospital doctors, medical grades employed in public health or community health settings, as well as a range of dental, nursing, health and social care professional, craft and clerical and administrative grades.
Management said that while there would be no change in the basic weekly working hours of the grades concerned, "however staff may be rostered to discharge their basic weekly hours within the time span of 8am to 8pm". It said that in situations where on-call or sessional payments currently applied that these would now only come into effect from 8pm.
The management proposal also said that the very nature of health service delivery required attendance over the span of Monday through Sunday.
Kevin Callinan, national secretary of the trade union Impact and secretary to the health group of unions, said that it was unacceptable for management to seek to introduce the revised working arrangements for new employees without agreement.
He said that talks on this issue were to have concluded over a year ago, but had never started.
"If there is a view that now that the consultant situation is, belatedly, moving to a conclusion that everyone else will just fall into place, then management could not be more mistaken," he said.