Nurses are to take part in talks with the Government on an extension to the Croke Park agreement but will strongly oppose any move to cut increments, allowances or premium payments.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said this afternoon that its executive council had decided to participate in talks on a possible extension to the current agreement on public service pay and reform following the recent invitation from the Government.
However, it said it would not agree to any reduction of existing rates of pay, either in the form of incremental scales, allowances or premiums as part of this new talks process.
The INMO said it would participate in the forthcoming process “with the key objectives of ensuring safe care to patients, protecting frontline services and maintaining members’ income”.
The union said its executive council had again reiterated its view that it was not simply possible “to maintain and deliver a safe health service, in 2013, in the context of a further €900 million reduction in financial allocation and a further loss of 3,500 posts over the next year”.
The INMO said it would be asking other organisations representing staff in the public service who worked around the clock – the 24/7 Alliance - at a meeting next week “to adopt a collective approach for the purpose of defending the total income of all members, whatever their grade, group or category, who provide essential frontline public services on a 24/7 basis”.
The union’s general secretary Liam Doran said the INMO was determined, in partnership with colleague unions and representative bodies, to continue to “protect our members from any further attacks upon their very ordinary incomes”.
“It is simply not possible, or tenable, for anyone to suggest that nurses, midwives or other public servants can take a further reduction in their income, just because they are public servants, and at the same time pay their bills and look after their families,” he said.