The Nursing Alliance will meet this morning to discuss an impasse in the talks with health service managers on nurses' pay. The talks stalled yesterday when the two sides failed to agree on whether pay could be discussed at the same time as changes in the role of ward sisters.
It is believed that management wished to leave discussions on pay until the end of the talks process, whereas union representatives wanted to discuss the issue in tandem with new grading structures.
The four-union Nursing Alliance will meet at 10.00 this morning and is due to make a public statement before lunchtime.
A schedule agreed on the first day of talks last week covered the period up to March 29th. The ultimate deadline for agreement imposed by the Labour Court is May 1st.
The talks were established after the court recommended earlier this month that allowances for staff nurses who have additional qualifications, or work in particularly demanding areas, be increased by up to £1,500 a year.
The court did not make any specific recommendation on differentials for the new grades of Clinical Nurse Manager (CNM) and Clinical Nurse Practitioner (CNP), or on increments for long-serving nurses. CNMs were intended to replace ward sisters, while CNPs would be a new grade of staff nurse.
The court accepted that poor pay differentials were an obstacle and recommended urgent talks.
