Nursing unions have sought increases of more than €6,000 per year under the benchmarking process to bring the salary of a staff nurse into line with therapy grades in the public health service.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) told the public service benchmarking body yesterday that nurses had to complete a similar four-year degree to those in therapy gradessuch as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and dieticians.
They also said a recent review in the UK had recommended equal pay for both groups there.
Union sources said at the minimum point of the current pay scale, a staff nurse - the basic nursing grade comprising about 19,000 whole-time equivalent staff - received about €6,000 per year less than a person in a therapy grade at the same level.
However, to bring staff nurses' pay into line would involve increases of more than €6,000 as they would have to take account of any rises awarded to the therapy grades by the benchmarking body.
The pay claim made yesterday by the nursing unions is higher than the 10.5 per cent sought in the recent seven-week dispute.
Union sources said the introduction of pay parity with the therapy grades would eliminate the "anomaly" between the salaries of nurses and some social care grades which featured prominently in the recent dispute.
However, health service management has rejected the nursing unions' arguments in its submission to the benchmarking body.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) Employers' Agency argued that the attempt to use the benchmarking process to align nursing pay with that of therapy staff was in conflict with the terms of reference of the body.
It said the role of the benchmarking body was to examine pay rates in the public sector vis-a-vis those in the private sectors not in relation to other public sector groups. Management also argued that the educational requirements and qualifications were not in themselves sufficient to justify a pay increase.
"Such factors such as the experience required, judgment, leadership and teamwork, responsibility, accountability and working environment must also be taken into account," it stated.
Management also maintained that 90 per cent of serving nurses do not have degrees. The HSE Employers Agency stated that on appointment to a staff nurse post, a registered nurse will receive a basic salary of €31,857.
It said a nurse can expect to earn a further €6,000 in premium pay for working weekends and bank holidays within a normal 39-hour week. It said a recent comprehensive survey of graduate recruitment had found that the median or typical starting salary for graduates in the public and private sectors was €24,000-€25,000.
"The highest paid graduates were engineers with median starting salaries of €28,000-€30,000," the management submission states.
The agency also contended that the benchmarking body should not award pay increases to nurses for potential changes in their roles and work practices. It said it should make its determination based on a snapshot of the situation as it was now. The INO and the PNA agreed to take their pay claim to the benchmarking body as part of the settlement of the recent dispute.