The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has served strike notice on health managers following their threat to withhold pay increases due to 30,000 nurses under the Sustaining Progress agreement.
But the managers claim the INO is in breach of benchmarking and Sustaining Progress agreements over an alleged refusal to co-operate with plans for the introduction of new healthcare assistant posts in hospitals.
In a statement today, the INO described the suggestion as "spurious" and claimed the move was instead "a direct retaliation" by health employers to INO's campaign against overcrowding in A&E departments.
The INO said the threat to withhold the 3.5 per cent pay increase due on June 1st was an "unwarranted and unprovoked attack, upon the entire nursing and midwifery professions".
The organisation said it would now commence a nationwide ballot of its members which will be completed within the next three weeks.
The Health Service Employers (HSE) today condemned the threat of industrial action, claiming the INO was "in clear breach of the industrial peace provisions" of the Sustaining Progress Agreement.
The HSE employers maintained the dispute centred on the INO's "non co-operation" with the training and deployment of new healthcare assistant posts in hospitals. Under the proposed plan, it is envisaged that the assistants will take patients' blood pressure and temperature under the direction of a nurse.
The INO says it has agreed seven of the eight modules involved in the healthcare assistant training programme and "a significant portion" of the eighth module.
However, it said it has identified "difficulties, on professional, legal and ethical grounds, with regard to the undertaking, by healthcare assistants, of direct patient observations".
But the head of the HSE employers Gerard Barry said: "To date, the HSE has provided exhaustive clarification to the INO regarding the nature of the proposed new role of health care assistants."
Mr Barry said: "The HSE employers can only assume that the INO's continued opposition to these changes is based on a wish to determine the right to decide who does what within our hospitals, i.e. this is an old fashioned demarcation dispute."
He said: "Even at this stage, we would urge the INO to rethink their position and engage positively with the development of this new and valuable role within our hospitals.
"Threats of strike action only serve to cause anxiety and worry the many vulnerable and older people within the community who depend very much on hospital services," he added.
