Ambulance personnel belonging to the National Ambulance Service Representative Association will begin industrial action on 24 July in a dispute over the automated deduction of union subscriptions from payroll.
The row centres on the refusal of the HSE to facilitate payroll deductions at source of union dues for new members of NASRA, which is affiliated to the Psychiatric Nurses Association.
The HSE does collect subscriptions through automated deductions for other unions including SIPTU, but informed sources said that as NASRA does not have union negotiating rights within the ambulance grades, it is not entitled to have subscriptions deducted at source.
NASRA notes that the HSE is already deducting subscriptions for members who joined prior to last autumn.
However, the HSE sources said that an instruction had been given that no NASRA subscriptions whatsoever should be deducted at source, and that if they were continuing to be deducted, it was an oversight that would be corrected.
It is understood that the industrial action will commence with a refusal to do non-essential duties or to use personal devices such as phones and satellite navigation units, but could escalate if NASRA's demands are not met.
PNA General Secretary Peter Hughes said ambulance personnel would not accept the "arbitrary" HSE move that would affect paramedics, advanced paramedics and emergency medical technicians who wished to exercise their fundamental right to join the union of their choice.
He said there was still time to avert industrial action and urged the HSE to immediately commence payroll deductions for new NASRA members.
NASRA's National Chairperson Sinead McGrath said that eight years on from its formation, NASRA is an organised and effective union that has built its membership nationally, and had represented members involved in grievances.
