Nurses' union calls for rejection of proposal

THE IRISH Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said that it was not prepared to recommend acceptance of the deal on public service pay and reform as it failed to provide guarantees that there would be no further salary reductions and would require it to back policies which would materially damage the health service.

The INMO yesterday became the sixth public service trade union in the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to call on members to reject the agreement reached at Croke Park a fortnight ago. Another union and a staff representative body that are not affiliated to Congress have also urged members to vote against the deal in forthcoming ballots.

The INMO, which has about 40,000 members, said it would develop its own alternative agenda for change in the health service, which would be presented at its annual conference in early May.

It also said that it would not be embarking on an escalated campaign of industrial action.

INMO general secretary Liam Doran said that far from guaranteeing no further pay cuts, the Croke Park deal allowed for the Government to reduce pay in the event of staff failing to accept or implement what he called the “fundamentally flawed” proposals for the health service.

He said that acceptance of the deal would have involved members signing up to all aspects of Government policy, including the current moratorium on recruitment and what he described as the “offensive” McCarthy report.

Mr Doran said this could involve a further 6,000 posts being lost from the health sector, a reduction of some 3,500 hospital beds without any alternative facilities being in place and a curtailment of services. He said that signing up to the reform deal would have also required nurses “to live and work in an environment where staff would not be replaced when they are on sick leave and there would be closure of bed and curtailment of services”.

Mr Doran said that a proposal to recommend rejection of the Croke Park deal would be brought to its annual conference in three weeks’ time, along with a motion that would specify an alternative approach to transformation in the health service.

“When that motion is debated and we believe adopted by annual conference that motion will then go out to ballot to members,” he said. The union said that it was still prepared to agree radical changes in the health service, but only in a manner that maintained safety, maximised access, ensured equity, effectiveness and cost-efficiency and not in a manner that involved 6,000 jobs losses and 3,500 bed closures. Mr Doran also said that the union wanted to send a message to its members and wider community that it was “not immediately moving to mobilise into a wider industrial campaign”.

Mr Doran said that the union would consider a renegotiation of the Croke Park deal, but that it would have to involve the Government making “a significant shift” in its position.