Staff at the Oberstown Detention Centre in Dublin have served notice of industrial action.
Residential care workers and night supervising staff will begin the action on Tuesday, May 31st.
Earlier this month, workers at the centre backed an industrial action ballot by a margin of 95 per cent in a dispute over the safety of clients and staff.
The unions, Impact and Siptu, said staff and residents at the centre are exposed to a daily risk of violent assault.
The unions propose to commence a series of four-hour stoppages (from 8am until noon) next Tuesday and continue every Tuesday throughout the month of June (June 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th).
Pickets will be placed on both gates onto the campus.
The Oberstown campus currently caters for 48 under-18s, including a mix of vulnerable young offenders and violent criminals with multiple convictions for serious offences.
IMPACT official Tom Hoare said the union will not hold industrial action at times and dates that would interfere with State examinations being held on campus.
Mr Hoare said the industrial action comes against the background of a high and growing number of attacks on staff since the expansion of the State’s only youth detention centre to facilitate the transfer of offenders from the prison service.
Emergency cover will be provided across the campus, which means that 16 frontline staff will remain on duty during the stoppages.
Any off-campus trips, such as court dates or routine hospital visits, will not be staffed by union members, except in an emergency situation, he said.
Recent figures revealed over 100 violent incidents in Oberstown last year, almost half of which were classed as ‘critical’.
The unions say they have highlighted problems with staff recruitment and retention.
The unions said absences due to assaults have left the facility “understaffed and incapable of dealing safely with the numbers of offenders in the unit”.