The Health Service Executive (HSE) has suspended a number of electricians without pay in the south of the country in a long-running dispute over who should be allowed to change light bulbs in hospitals.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) said it was forced to postpone 11 operations at Kerry General Hospital after electricians refused to cover life or death or emergency cases.
Nearly 40 electricians, members of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU), were suspended yesterday evening from their jobs at Cork University Hospital, St Finbarr's Hospital, Kerry General Hospital and Mallow Hospital in Cork.
TEEU members are refusing to implement a labour court recommendation that permits workers other than electricians to change light bulbs.
Electricians say this should be exclusively their work, while the HSE argue that this would add considerably to its costs.
The TEEU has condemned the decision to suspend the workers saying the HSE had refused offers to engage in direct talks.
It claims the HSE is employing contractors to carry out work for less than the registered employment rates in breach of national agreements.
The HSE claims TEEU members have withdrawn from providing an on call or out of hours service except in life or death situations to acute hospitals in the region.
The TEEU this afternoon called for binding third party arbitration to resolve the long running dispute.