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They will join thousands of healthcare workers including nurses who plan to take industrial action from Monday March 31.
The Medical Laboratory Scientists Association served notice of industrial action on the HSE earlier today.
It said in a statement that notice was served in response to the effect of a HSE Pay and Numbers Strategy.
The union claimed medical scientists posts that were vacant in December 2023 were “suppressed”.
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Today’s News in 90 seconds – 18th March 2025
Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Fórsa, Unite and Connect, have already served notice of a work-to-rule on the HSE.
The MLSA said the background to the dispute is that many medical scientist posts were vacant on December 31 2023 due to a longstanding recruitment and retention crisis.
It said the situation has worsened since then and most vacancies since January 1 last year were “not being approved or prioritised”.
“The HSE has suppressed these frontline posts without assessing the impact on the service of the permanent loss of these posts and has refused to share data with trade unions on how many funded and approved vacancies have been suppressed,” said Maireád Ní Mhuimhneacháin, MLSA chairperson.
The MLSA claimed that HSE census figures show a minimal increase in medical scientist posts since 2019 despite “exponential growth” of laboratory workloads.
It said the HSE constantly refers to a considerable increase in HSE staff since 2019, but this growth has not been across all sectors.
“Medical scientists staffing in some hospitals is running as much as 40pc below the recommended level and the HSE has in some locations been contracting and increasingly reliance on short-term agency staff,” said Ms Ní Mhuimhneacháin.
“At the same time, an increasing amount of public health service laboratory diagnostic work is being outsourced by the HSE at considerable cost. This is not sustainable, not a solution and not value for money for the exchequer.”
Terry Casey, MLSA general secretary, said the demands on laboratory services continue to grow and medical scientists continue to try to keep services going at great personal cost.
He said medical scientists can no longer sustain current levels of service and cannot afford to let the situation go unchallenged.
The Irish Independent has asked the HSE to comment.
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