SIPTU's health services branch will proceed with the first of a series of strikes in the Eastern Regional Health Authority over pay on Monday.
The initial stoppage by 3,000 members will be for four hours, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Emergency cover will be provided at hospitals and health centres.
SIPTU is also planning a march from Liberty Hall, Dublin, to the headquarters of the ERHA at Dr Steevens's hospital. This will begin at 12.30 p.m.
The protest is over inefficiencies in the payroll system, including delays in paying an analogue increase worth £19.46p a week. The ERHA gave commitments that increases would be paid in full from yesterday. SIPTU branch secretary Mr Paul Bell said yesterday the analogue payment was included as a separate cheque in wages, and claimed other groups such as ambulance drivers and home helps had pay problems. A spokesman for the shared services section of the ERHA said employees received an explanatory note with the two pay cheques yesterday. They would receive one cheque consolidating the payments from next week. He disputed SIPTU complaints for other groups.
The authority had invited Mr Bell to meet employee relations managers and he had refused. Mr Bell said previous commitments at such meetings had not been honoured.