Pickets were placed on St Ita's Hospital in Newcastle West, Co Limerick yesterday, but emergency cover was being provided, Brian McLaughlin reports.
Fifty-four nurses, members of the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and SIPTU, plan to extend the dispute if what they consider to be necessary measures are not implemented. The unions are looking for 11 additional nurses plus one attendant. They have been offered three nurses, which an INO representative said yesterday was not acceptable.
In a statement, the Mid-Western Health Board regretted the union's decision to ignore its offer of a joint referral of the issues in dispute to independent arbitration. The board claims the rejection of the offer was in breach of agreed dispute procedures. The union said it refused the referral on the basis that there was no interim offer from the health board.
Nurses at St Joseph's Hospital in Clonmel, Co Tipperary will decide tomorrow afternoon whether to escalate their work to rule over what they claim is an accommodation and staff shortage crisis at the hospital.
An escalation of the industrial action threatened for yesterday was deferred.