The dispute between the Health Service Executive and the trade union Impact over the provision of key financial and other data is to be referred to the Labour Court.
Informed sources said the Labour Court is expected to hold a hearing on the dispute tomorrow.
The ban on the provision of financial and activity data was put in place by Impact nearly three months ago as part of its industrial action campaign against pay cuts in the public service.
However the HSE had warned that if the ban was not lifted by Thursday, it would begin the process of taking the staff involved in the action from the payroll.
Separately HSE executives have been asked to identify cuts that would allow it to generate a €200 million reserve fund to offset budgetary overruns that may arise from the industrial action.
This is expected to involve the cancellation of elective admissions, cuts in homecare packages and reduced home help hours.
The HSE is also drawing up contingency plans to deal with any escalation of action if staff are removed from the payroll.
The HSE has said the ban on the provision of the financial data has meant it does not know how its €14 billion budget is being spent and whether saving of €400 million which it is required to make this year are being achieved.
