The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Association have served notice of industrial action in the Donegal Intellectual Disability Services, Árd na Gréine.
The action follows a decision by the employer to withdraw a proposal that would have 247 management on-site.
As a result the facility in Stranorlar will begin industrial action in the form of a work-to-rule on June 2.
INMO and PNA members will also hold a lunchtime protest on May 27.
Both unions have balloted their members following a decision by the employer to withdraw a proposal that would have 247 management on-site.
For two years, local HSE management promised that robust out-of-hours governance would be reinstated.
Based on this written commitment, nursing staff cooperated with a major service reconfiguration, facilitating the move of vulnerable residents into two new residential houses.
Both the INMO and PNA are demanding reinstating the on-site management that was dismantled without consultation after 2016 and the appointment of additional nursing managers to ensure the clinical authority required for service-wide safeguarding.
INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, Colm Porter said:
“The decision by members of both the INMO and the PNA to take industrial action in Árd na Gréine is not one that has been taken lightly. It is clear that ensuring appropriate governance structures are in place in intellectual disability services must be an immediate priority for the HSE.”
PNA Industrial Relations Officer, Niall O’Sullivan said:
“It is unacceptable that our members in Árd na Gréine are operating in a leadership vacuum. Report after report into intellectual disability services have proved that governance structures cannot be disregarded.”