Nurses seek special pay review to reflect broader role in health service

Nurses are to seek a special review of their pay to reflect what they have argued is the broader role they now play in the health service.

Nurses are also to demand a reversal by the Government of the longer working week which was introduced under the former Haddington Road agreement in 2013.

Delegates at the annual conference of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) in Killarney also voted unanimously to review its continued co-operation with the Lansdowne Road agreement on public service pay which was negotiated last year and which came into effect in January.

The general secretary of the INMO Liam Doran said nursing and midwifery faced "absolutely unique challenges" which could not be addressed by means of a collective agreement that covered all groups across the entire public service.

“It is quite clear that the Lansdowne Road agreement in its current form is untenable, is not sustainable, is not feasible, is not reasonable and is never going to deliver the nursing and midwifery quantum that is required to deliver safe care in the health system.”

He said the agreement had to be revisited.

Mr Doran said his union could not rest for as long as a nurse or midwife had a longer standard working week than any other allied health professional. He said these other groups were employed on a 37-hour week while nurses worked 39 hours.

Mr Doran said there were two dimensions to pay. He said restoration of cuts to remuneration which were imposed following the economic crash had to be reversed in full.

However he maintained that separately nurses and midwives required an immediate review of salary to reflect their expanded role in the health service.

He said nurses and midwives “had not stood still” since the report of the Commission on Nursing was published more than 15 years ago.

“The nurse and midwife of today is a very different professional than then and we need that measured and we it recognised and we need that valued.”

“We have to demand a unique approach and an evaluation of the role of toady’s nurse compared to the traditional vision of the nurse.”

“Management cannot expect from us to grow and expand and fill every crack in the system that they have created and stood over without at some stage saying, you are worth more than we have ever valued you.”

INMO vice president Geraldine Talty said the role of the nurse and midwife today was very different to that of their counterparts 10 or 15 years ago. She said under a recent agreement nurses would be taking over some tasks previously carried out by doctors.

“The public service agreement demanded productivity. Well we are very productive. This productivity now requires measures for every nurse and midwife in this country. “

“We must be recognised and rewarded for our changing practice.”

She the recruitment and retention difficulties being experienced in the health service would never be addressed until the productivity and expanded role of nurses was rewarded.

Ms Talty said nurses who started in the public service after 2011 had two additional points on the pay scale imposed. She said these two additional points on the same should be abolished immediately.

Breda Shankey of the Dublin South West branch said public servants had been scapegoated during the economic recession and had been really badly hurt by the Haddington Road and Lansdowne Road agreements.

She said wages had been reduced by 16 per cent and nurses were working more than39 hours per week but only paid for37.5.

She some new entrant nurses were being asked to sign contracts agreeing to compulsory overtime on call at the hospital’s behest.

“If the employers can change our terms and conditions, why should we be bound by the punitive terms of Lansdowne Road for the next two years.”