The country’s largest union Siptu is to lodge a claim for a 3.5 per cent pay increase for some 34,000 staff it represents in the health sector.
The union says that the increase represents the first phase of the national pay deal negotiated for public sector staff last year but never implemented by the Government.
The claim covers 34,000 workers, including paramedics, nurses and manual grades.
In a statement, the union said it has sanctioned industrial action if the Health Services Executive refuses to engage with the union on implementation of the increase.
"It is Siptu's position that our members have voted in favour of a national agreement and that the terms of the agreement must be implemented without delay", the union's health services branch organiser Paul Bell said today. "The Government is talking about pay cuts but there are pay increases due that were never implemented.
"Our members have already had to endure the implementation of a pension levy, which has reduced their salary by between five and eight per cent, " Mr Bell added. "Naturally they reserve the right to defend their living standards and do whatever it takes to rebalance the debate on public service pay."
The move ups the ante in the row between the Government and public sector unions over pay.
Government ministers have signalled over recent weeks that pay cuts cuts of 5 per cent for most public sector workers and deeper reductions for those at the top could be implemented next year.
Siptu president Jack O’Connor said yesterday strike action by public servants against pay cuts in the budget was now inevitable.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions executive is to meet tomorrow on the situation.
Public sector union Impact has begun balloting its 55,000 members on industrial action over proposed pay cuts. The union said it would use a strike mandate if public service employers imposed compulsory redundancies, unilateral cuts in working hours, further pay cuts or reductions in pension entitlements.
Tánaiste Mary Coughlan today called for trade unions to engage in negotiation rather than strike action.