The HSE is now appearing at the Labour Court almost twice a week as relations between management, unions and staff deteriorate, prompting 'bush fire' disputes throughout the health service.

Up to the end of July this year, the HSE and the various unions representing the more than 100,000 staff appeared 56 times at the Labour Court – the 'court of last resort' which is to be used only when all local efforts to resolve a dispute have failed.

This is a 50% increase on 2009 when the HSE and the unions made 66 appearances at the court for the whole year, or 1.25 appearances every week.

The most recent health-related dispute to be heard at the Labour Court concerned on-call payments for electricians in the HSE, a row that has been going on for 14 years.

In this case, Labour Court chairman Kevin Duffy told the TEEU electricians' union and the HSE to go back and negotiate a national deal on on-call payments as the court had instructed then to do over two years ago.

"The problem in the health service is there are no efforts to resolve disputes at local level and everything is referred on up the line", said a source.

Last year, it was estimated that at any one time around 70% of staff in the entire health service were involved in some kind of dispute with management, added the source.