Members of trade union Impact are to stage a protest at University College Hospital, Galway, today over the outsourcing of clerical and administrative jobs at the hospital.
The lunchtime protest is the second in a series to be held by members angry at the outsourcing of work normally carried out by Health Service Executive employees.
Denis Rohan, assistant general secretary of Impact, said the hospital had outsourced some 100 jobs without the knowledge or agreement of the union.
"The action is in breach of agreements we have with the hospital, is in breach of Sustaining Progress and flies in the face of the partnership process that is supposed to be operating in the health services."
Impact has made a strong protest to the HSE Western area in relation to the employment of agency staff in posts normally filled by employees of the executive.
There are currently as many as 100 agency staff employed in such positions, according to the union.
Mr Rohan said the union understood that the HSE decided to outsource the clerical and administrative posts in an attempt to circumvent the Government embargo on the recruitment of staff in the public service.
Staff employed through a recruitment agency are not counted as part of the overall numbers employed in the health sector as the cost associated with the provision of such staff is invoiced to the agency and does not appear as an employee pay cost.
