Midwives at the private Bon Secours Hospital, Cork, are to ballot for industrial action in a dispute over their employment position after the hospital closes its obstetrics department next year.
A decision was taken in November 2005 to discontinue obstetric services within the hospital from March 1st, 2007.
The hospital believes that the closure is covered under the transfer-of-undertakings legislation. Its interpretation of the legislation is that the midwives should either stay at the hospital and work in the general setting, or seek employment in the new €75 million centralised maternity unit in Cork University Hospital.
However, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has said that the closure should be addressed under the Redundancy Payments Act which would make a redundancy package available to midwives if they do not wish to move to another setting within the Bon Secours hospital.
INO industrial relations officer Michael Dineen said scant regard had been given to the concerns of the midwives. "Some of our members have spent over 30 years working in the Bon Secours and are entitled to have all issues satisfactorily resolved in relation to their current posts within the hospital before they decide on their future path. It is regrettable that budgetary concerns would seem to take precedence over the concerns of the midwives involved and that these issues have not been addressed in any meaningful way by the company to date."
Mr Dineen said staff felt they had no alternative but to ballot for industrial action in an effort to have their rights upheld.
The maternity unit has had more than 100,000 deliveries since it opened in 1958 and it currently delivers around 1,800 babies a year.
Management at the hospital expressed regret and disappointment at the decision of the INO to ballot for industrial action.