Talks at the Labour Relations Commission to avert strike action by 4,500 careworkers are believed to be in danger of collapsing. The Chairman of the Commission said this evening "the two sides are as far apart as ever."
The national dispute concerns pay increases of up to 44 per cent awarded to childcare workers in April 2001.
IMPACT and SIPTU who represent carers in residential homes for the intellectually disabled say their members perform identical work to those childcare workers.
The unions claims the two group share common educational qualifications.
However the Health Service Employers Agency insist that processing the claim on behalf of residential carers was being dealt with separately under the benchmarking process.
If the negotiations fail hundreds of residents will be returned to their families.
the Labour Relations Commission chief executive, Mr Kieran Mulvey, said both sides seemed as far apart as ever, but because of the vulnerability of the people affected by the dispute it was vital all parties sought to reach a settlement.
The two unions are negotiating separately. IMPACT, which represents 1,200 workers began talks at 9.30 a.m.
They were followed by SIPTU, who will be negotiating on behalf of up to 3,000 residential care workers, at 12 p.m.
Yesterday, SIPTU deferred planned strike action to enter today's round of discussions.