SIPTU has welcomed a special task force recommendation to introduce a "no fault" compensation scheme for nurses who are assaulted at work.The scheme is one of several recommendations about to be issued in a report to the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, at a Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) conference next Tuesday.
The PNA are expected to discuss the recommendations and call on Mr Martin to set a date for the implementation of the scheme at the conference.
"The report is a welcome development for nurses," SIPTU's national nursing official, Mr Oliver McDonagh, said yesterday.
The no-fault scheme would compensate nurses injured by assault at work without their having to prove liability and without incurring legal fees.
The task force was set up by Mr Martin last year to look at assaults on psychiatric nurses and to propose a compensation scheme.
It included representatives of the Health Services Employers' Agency, the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Finance, the Midland Health Board, SIPTU and the PNA.
Other recommendations to be put forward by the task force are understood to include the continuation of the payment of 5/6 of pay to nurses injured by assaults and the introduction of a lump sum for pain and suffering and out of pocket expenses.
"These recommendations have now been placed on the Minister's desk and are awaiting ratification," said Mr McDonagh.
Previously nurses - including 5,000 in psychiatric services - who were injured due to assaults had to take their cases through the courts and prove their employers were negligent.
"SIPTU had sought a scheme similar to that enjoyed by the gardaí and the prison officers," Mr McDonagh said.
The PNA have been campaigning for a compensation scheme for its members and other nurses injured through assaults at work for almost thirty years.
The campaign took on a fresh urgency when three nurses were stabbed in Artane ten years ago.
One was stabbed through the heart and another had a perforated lung.
They have never been compensated for their injuries.
In another incident a mother of three in her mid-30's was assaulted three times by the same patient and was forced to retire on grounds of ill-health.
Recent studies of employees in the Irish psychiatric services show that the frequency of assaults is on the increase.