Psychiatic nurses at two Sligo hospitals staged a one-day strike yesterday in a dispute over rostering.
The nurses, members of the Psychiatric Nurses' Association of Ireland (PNAI), picketed St Columba's Hospital and St John's Hospital for 12 hours from 8 a.m.
The action by the 50 nurses will be stepped up unless rosters are made "safe" and more family friendly, the general secretary of the PNAI, Mr Des Kavanagh, said.
He said nurses routinely worked 13 long days in a 15-day period and occasionally worked seven long days followed by seven days of night duty.
Some nurses, he said, worked three weekends in a row, which meant they might have only one full day to spend with their children every month.
The North Western Health Board's employee relations manager, Mr Kevin Little, said the board recognised there was "a case to be addressed". It had put a proposal to the PNAI that members would work a five-day rather than a seven-day roster.
Mr Kavanagh said this was put to the union at the eleventh hour and it was "too little, too late".
While he acknowledged it was an improvement, he said it was not enough. The union will meet the health board again on Tuesday and unless progress is made it will step up its industrial action, he said.
He did not rule out an all-out strike.
Mr Little said the proposal for a five-day roster was "not necessarily a bottom-line position" and he was surprised the nurses went on strike "so quickly".
"There is scope for further discussion but it isn't possible to accede to the union's request for a four days on, three days off arrangement because of the difficulty of getting staff to cover such an arrangement," he said.
He added that just 25 per cent of all nursing staff at the two hospitals - those represented by the PNAI - had taken industrial action.
Mr Kavanagh said negotiations had been going on for 18 months.