More than 3000 IHC community support workers are stepping up action to get a pay rise by implementing a ban on sleepover shifts.
The Service and Food Workers Union has been negotiating with the disability support provider since October.
It is seeking a 2 percent pay increase and IHC is offering a 12 month pay freeze.
A 24-hour ban on sleepover shifts means workers around the country will not turn up to supervise disabled people at community houses between 10pm Monday and 7am Tuesday.
It will add to their bans on overtime, non-essential paper work, and driving their own personal vehicles on IHC business.
Union national secretary John Ryall said that the sleepover ban was not undertaken lightly, but after five months of negotiating it was "an attempt to bring IHC to its senses in realising that the welfare of its frontline staff was critical to the support provided for its intellectually disabled clients".
"IHC have received a 2 percent Ministry of Health funding increase from 1 July 2009 but are refusing to pass any of it on to their frontline staff. Their priorities need to change quickly if the escalation of action is to be avoided," he said.
However, IHC general manager of human resources, David Timms, said the Government's 2 percent funding increase had only applied to part of IHC's service and equated to a 1.2 per cent increase across all services.
"We simply can't afford to do what the union is asking," he told the Taranaki Daily News.
Mr Ryall said the union had given IHC a month's notice of the action in order for them to make arrangements for cover at the community houses.
Mr Timms said he believed most staff would work their shifts anyway.
"They are people who care about their jobs and the safety of the service users."
