The Government faces the most serious challenge to pay policy since the current round of national agreements was introduced in 1987.
Some 28,000 nurses have voted by 95 per cent for strike action in the health services, 9,000 gardai have rejected the latest Government offer on pay and Mandate, which represents 35,000 private-sector workers, says it is opposed to entering talks on a successor to Partnership 2000.
Ironically Mandate decided yesterday to oppose a new agreement because it says that the retail trade workers, who form the bulk of its membership, have fallen significantly behind other groups, including the public service.
If the nurses' strike goes ahead, it will be the largest industrial dispute in the history of the State. With a quarter of public health service staff involved, it will pose a serious threat to the maintenance of services.
Nursing unions and health managers meet tomorrow to discuss emergency care during next week's threatened national strike. The meeting follows the counting of the Nursing Alliance strike vote yesterday, which, at 95 per cent, was as great as the vote to reject the Labour Court's £100 million award last month.
The chairman of the alliance, Mr Liam Doran, attributed the strike vote in part to comments made by Ministers during the ballot. He called on them "to stop talking at the nurses and begin talking to nurse representatives constructively about the outstanding issues."
However, there were no indications last night that the Government was in any mood for talks. The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, said he was "deeply disappointed that nurses have voted for strike action. I do not believe such action is either justified or necessary.
"An all-out strike is a blunt weapon and it will affect all services and inflict hardship on patients and clients of the health services who are in need of nursing care."
He repeated the willingness of the Government to accept the Labour Court "package of improvements", but said he could not depart from its findings, "given the wider implications for public service pay". The only way out of the impasse offered by Mr Cowen was that if the nurses accepted the court's findings, there could be further discussions with the Nursing Alliance in the overall negotiations on any successor to Partnership 2000.
"I am convinced that the interests and aspirations of nurses would best be served by their union leaders using their influence to shape a new partnership agreement," he said.
It is possible that talks on a settlement could emerge out of tomorrow's talks on emergency cover, however this is unlikely. It is also unlikely that those talks will even result in agreement on guidelines to provide cover at national level.
The general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, Mr Des Kavanagh, said that his members in two Dublin private hospitals, St John of God's and St Patrick's, were also taking industrial action in support of their colleagues in the public service.
The alliance is planning to picket Leinster House this evening and tomorrow evening, during the adjournment debates on the threatened strike. It is also planning a national demonstration at Leinster House on October 21st, if the strike goes ahead next Tuesday.