Up to 40 electrical and technical staff have been suspended by the Health Service Executive (HSE)from their duties at acute hospitals in the south and southeast.
The HSE claims it was left with no choice but to remove the members of the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) from the payroll, following their refusal to implement a Labour Court recommendation made in March of this year allowing non-qualified electricians or general operatives to change light bulbs at Cork University Hospital.
However, TEEU general secretary Owen Wills said the issue was "100 per cent not about light bulbs" and it was misleading of the HSE to suggest this.
"What we are in dispute over is the payment of outstanding payments to our members going back to 2001 under benchmarking, disagreements over call-out arrangements and a number of other matters. The LRC [Labour Relations Committee] recommended that we go to a third party for arbitration on these issues . . . but the HSE has refused to do this," he explained.
The TEEU also claims unqualified personnel have been deployed to carry out the work of its members and this has resulted in damage to boilers in Kilkenny hospital and to a generator in Wexford General Hospital.
The dispute has been simmering for some time, with TEEU members withdrawing from call-out arrangements since April. But in an escalation of the dispute on Tuesday, the HSE said TEEU members refused to carry bleepers, answer pagers or mobile phones. "They have also refused to comply with any written form of communication associated with their role (logging calls, signing off on jobs) and will only accept verbal instructions from their direct supervisor . . ." it said.
"These actions will prevent the normal day-to-day functioning of the electrical departments in all locations across HSE South and will compromise the delivery of normal services in hospital/community settings across Cork, Kerry, Waterford, South Tipperary, Carlow, Kilkenny and Wexford," it added.
It said life-and-death cover had also been withdrawn at Kerry and Mallow hospitals but the TEEU insisted emergency cover was still being provided. Meanwhile, the HSE said last night the dispute was impacting on patients and had resulted in 11 procedures being cancelled at Kerry General Hospital since last week.
The TEEU yesterday said its members had agreed only to accept instructions from their foremen because of harassment by management.
Barry O'Brien, assistant national director of human resources with HSE South, said the HSE had taken every step possible but it had been left with no alternative but to remove members of staff from the payroll as they were refusing to carry out their full range of duties.
"We continue to be available to engage with the unions to resolve this current dispute," he stated.
The union said it remains available for talks with the HSE but believes the issues should be arbitrated on for closure to the dispute.