Talks between the Irish Medical Organisation and health employers resume this morning in the shadow of Friday's announcement that non-consultant hospital doctors have voted by a 97 per cent majority in favour of industrial action should the talks fail.
In a separate dispute, six hospitals in Dublin face two days of strike action by ward attendants.
Today's talks on the doctors' dispute take place at the Labour Relations Commission and could continue until mid-September.
They arise from new rosters introduced in some hospitals in July. These would mean that at least part of the basic working week of an NCHD could take place outside normal daytime hours.
The move is part of a process to reorganise rosters to allow for a reduction in the amount of overtime worked by doctors. While the IMO agrees with this principle it argues that the basic week must remain Monday to Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Work done outside those hours should be paid for as overtime, it says.
It is basing its opposition to new rosters in the current dispute on the argument that the best training opportunities for NCHDs occur during normal daytime hours when hospitals are at their busiest.
The Health Service Employers' Agency denies there has been any reduction in training hours and says the doctors want to protect their overtime payments.
Ward attendants in SIPTU are due to hold a 48-hour strike on Thursday and Friday in a number of psychiatric and long-stay hospitals in Dublin and in St Colmcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown. The strike is in pursuit of an 8 per cent pay claim. Apart from St Colmcille's, the hospitals involved are St Mary's Hospital, Phoenix Park, Brú Chaoimhín Home, Cork Street (both long-stay hospitals), St Ita's Psychiatric Services, Portrane, St Brendan's, Grangegorman, and Clonskeagh Hospital (all psychiatric hospitals).
The Labour Court has recommended that the pay claim be dealt with by a benchmarking process for health craft workers due to report later this year but SIPTU members have rejected this.