Ambulance drivers throughout the State have served notice of one-day strikes on July 29th and August 5th in support of colleagues in Co Wicklow who began their sixth week of industrial action yesterday.
A six-to-one majority of 460 workers balloted voted in favour of industrial action. If the Wicklow dispute is not resolved after the second one-day strike, the drivers have resolved to begin an all-out strike on August 10th.
"This dispute has dragged on long enough," said Mr Matt Merrigan of SIPTU. "We're now trying to bring it to a head."
The dispute centres on staffing and compensation issues resulting from the opening of a 24-hour service in Arklow.
The Eastern Health Board (EHB) wants four of the 19 staff members based at the ambulance centre in Wicklow to move to Arklow. The drivers want only two staff members to be moved and are also looking for compensation for having to work extra night and weekend shifts.
In a statement last night, the EHB said it was "highly inappropriate that national accident and emergency services should be threatened in furtherance of a local dispute".
It said the issue of staffing was raised for the first time last month, two weeks after the strike had begun, adding that EHB proposals to address the issue were rejected "out of hand" by SIPTU.
"No ambulance staff in Wicklow will suffer any loss of earnings as a result of changed roster arrangements and in fact we believe that they will gain additional earning through premium payments for Sundays and nights," it added.
Mr Merrigan criticised the EHB for rejecting a five-point package proposed by the workers, covering issues of staffing, lead-in payments, loss of earnings, selection procedures and a review period.
He said the workers were prepared to be bound by the pay review recommendations proposed by independent facilitator Mr Des Casey, who suspended his intervention last week as no progress was being made. However, he said the "management side didn't see fit to agree with that".
"We have also indicated that we are prepared to discuss drawing up emergency measures in the case of the industrial action going ahead. We have yet to receive a response on that initiative."
Mr John O'Brien, of SITPU's Wicklow branch, said union officials last met the EHB over a week ago and there was little sign of progress.
The Army is providing 24-hour cover for the Co Wicklow area during the strike.
