A proposed strike by non-nursing staff of the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) due to take place on Monday, April 2nd, has today been averted.
The planned four-hour protest over pay was called off after both parties agreed to engage in talks next Tuesday.
The 3,000 workers, represented by the SIPTU, and employed at various health board hospitals within the region, claimed the planned work stoppage was to highlight dissatisfaction with arrears in pay due them under the National Analogue Award and the National Home Help Agreement.
ERHA spokesman, Mr Alex Connolly, however, told ireland.comthat rates agreed at the time had been paid by the health authority.
SIPTU Dublin Health Services Branch Secretary, Mr Paul Bell, said in a statement that although the union was willing to meet human resource managers in the area boards to discuss the issues, it was not prepared to deal with the same managers it had done at the beginning of the dispute last August.
He complained that those managers had "since remained invisible and unavailable as this latest phase of the dispute has reached crisis point".