Around 40,000 nurses and midwives have voted to take industrial action from later this month in a dispute over pay and conditions, writes Martin Wall
Yesterday the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) served 21 days notice for industrial action on the Health Service Executive.
The unions said the action would include a nationwide work-to-rule and short-duration rolling work stoppages. They declined to provide specifics in relation to the planned work-to-rule.
They warned that following the 21-day notice period they would give no further details to health employers of when the campaign would begin and the exact nature of the action.
The unions also announced yesterday that there would be three lunchtime protests held in Cork University Hospital on Monday, February 26th; University College Hospital in Galway and the Regional hospital in Limerick on Friday, March 2nd; and the Mater hospital in Dublin on Friday, March 9th. These protests will not affect patient services.
In a ballot 96 per cent of INO members and 97 per cent of PNA members supported the industrial action proposals.
Nurses are seeking a 10 per cent pay rise and the introduction of a 35-hour week as well as a new allowance for working in Dublin.
INO general secretary Liam Doran said that in the event of industrial action going ahead, nurses would provide emergency cover but only if this was paid for by health service management.
Late last year the Labour Court rejected claims put forward by the two nursing organisations and said that some of these could be addressed through the public service benchmarking process.
However the unions have maintained that the first benchmarking report did not deal with their claims and that they have no confidence in the second process which is due to be completed next year.
Minister for Health Mary Harney has said previously that the claims by the nurses could not be afforded and would not be paid.
The Minister had no comment yesterday.
The unions said yesterday that the industrial action campaign would be constructed in a manner "to minimise disruption to patient services while maximising the disruption to health service management".
The INO and the PNA said they remained available for immediate discussions with health service management. However they said the clock had started ticking and they would not hesitate to commence the campaign of industrial action.
Mr Doran said that at no stage had anyone argued that their claims were unreasonable.
He said management had said in negotiations that the standard working week in the health sector was 35 hours but that for nurses it was 39 hours.
He said the unions were also angry that graduate nurses earned up to €3,000 less than social care workers, many of whom had no qualifications and who reported to nurses.
Des Kavanagh, secretary general of the PNA, said: "The ballot confirms the determination of our combined membership to make progress on these issues, which have been outstanding for years."
The HSE expressed disappointment at the decision of the nursing unions to serve notice of industrial action.
The assistant chief executive of the Health Service Executive - Employers Agency, Brendan Mulligan, said: "The public service benchmarking process provides a mechanism to have these claims adjudicated on and even at this stage we would urge the unions to accept the Labour Court Recommendation and also the terms of the new Social Partnership Agreement."