A High Court challenge is likely to be mounted on behalf of a patient in the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum if the strike by SIPTU care officers continues.
The patient is confined to a cell for more than 20 hours a day because of the dispute, and a lawyer for the patient is considering taking a case on the basis that the lengthy confinement contravenes the patient's rights.
Over 40 of the 65 patients at the hospital are being detained in similar circumstances. Only a few of the patients have TV sets, and their only form of recreation is reading, "to which some are not inclined", a hospital source said.
SIPTU nurses at the hospital have voted unanimously to take industrial action in support of 90 care officers who have been on strike since Tuesday in a dispute with the Eastern Health Board. The dispute involves a change in work rosters, the phasing out of the care officer grade and a transfer of gate security duties.
SIPTU sources at Dundrum angrily rejected claims by management that they were refusing to accept the changes in order to defend large overtime earnings. They said that only one or two people earned overtime at the rates of £6,000 to £12,000 a year, as claimed by management; most staff earned between £800 and £1,000 for operating the gate.
The sources said their primary concern for retaining control of gate duties was the safety and security of staff and patients. "We have managed to keep hard drugs out of Dundrum", one SIPTU member said. "As recently as last week we found a knife on a patient coming in from prison."
Knowledge of patients and their families was an important element of gate security, the SIPTU sources said, and this was only accessible to people working on the wards. They suggested that the dispute could have been avoided if management had agreed not to unilaterally phase in changes in rosters.
SIPTU's national industrial secretary, Mr Matt Merrigan, said it was likely that the union would serve a week's strike notice on behalf of the nurses later today. "We are hoping that management will enter into meaningful negotiations in the meantime, in order to resolve the issues in an amicable way." He said that members had already conceded a great deal of productivity.
The care officers are one of the last groups to settle the local bargaining clause of the Programme for Competitiveness and Work. They enjoy a traditional pay link with prison officers and have been offered almost 13 per cent. They say that they have agreed 12 out of 14 productivity measures with management.