STUDENT NURSES and midwives are to engage in a campaign of action, including possible strike action, in protest at Government plans to reduce their pay.
The Government announced in late December that it planned to reduce and ultimately abolish payments made to fourth-year nurses and midwives in training during their mandatory 36-week placements in hospitals.
They are currently paid 80 per cent of the salary of a staff nurse during this period.
The Department of Health said yesterday there were no plans to reverse the cuts which, it estimated, would ultimately generated savings of €28 million.
It said payments would be cut to 76 per cent of the reduced minimum of the staff nurse scale in 2011; 60 per cent in 2012; 50 per cent in 2013; and 40 per cent in 2014.
Payments would be abolished for students entering the undergraduate degree programme this year, resulting in anticipated savings of €28 million.
At the launch of the campaign yesterday, general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Liam Doran described the Government’s move as the introduction of “slave labour” in the health service.
The campaign is being backed by the main unions representing nurses, the INMO, Siptu and the Psychiatric Nurses Association.
The escalating campaign will begin with a lunchtime protest on Wednesday, February 9th involving about 6,000 nurses and midwives in training at 13 hospitals.
This will be followed by a march and rally in Dublin city centre on Wednesday, February 16th.
Mr Doran said the five main political parties would be asked for their position on the nursing pay cuts.
He warned this would become a major election issue and any party that did not commit to reversing the cuts was unlikely to get a vote from nurses and midwives.
The nursing unions are also to ballot fourth-year students who are currently on their placement on industrial action, up to and including strike action.
Any such action would take place in March.
Mr Doran said many hospital wards relied heavily on fourth-year student nurses and midwives during their placement.
He said that any industrial action would be “very disruptive”.
Mr Doran said that student nurses and midwives in Ireland were not treated more favourably than their counterparts in other countries.
During their mandatory 36-week placement, he said, they worked as employees, replaced qualified staff and provided direct patient care. He said that during their placement they operated the full roster, “nights, weekends, the lot”.
Speaking at the campaign launch, Audrey O’Gorman, a third-year midwife student in Trinity College, said the cuts could force her to leave her nursing course.
“Before I left I had to make sure that I had enough money to keep me going for the three years. I have taken out equity on my house.
“I have made an agreement with the bank that I will have interest-only payments for three years on the basis that in the fourth year I will receive 80 per cent of the wages,” she said.
“This is not the case now and I am now longer going to be able to continue in college if these cuts continue.
“To be told that we will receive less than the minimum wage is a slap in the face,” she said.
Louise O’Reilly of Siptu said the planned pay cuts were wholly unjustified and in clear breach of the Croke Park deal.
Des Kavanagh of the Psychiatric Nurses Association said his members were opposed to unpaid labour in hospitals.
The Department of Health said the cuts were necessary given the scale of the budget deficit and the need to put the public finances in order.
The department said it had to achieve significant pay savings under the National Recovery Plan.
“This decision was also made in the context of the relatively favourable manner, compared with other countries, in which Ireland has treated student nurses as paid employees for part of their education programme while giving them the same status as other university students,” an official said.