The chairman of the Labour Court, Mr Finbarr Flood, today faces the almost impossible task of trying to reconcile the nurses' £100 million pay claim with the Government's insistence that concessions to the Nursing Alliance could fatally undermine public sector pay policy. Hardline stances on both sides have catapulted the dispute into the court before all other options were explored.
These stances go back to the bitter legacy of the 1997 dispute, when a national strike over nurses' pay was averted with 14 hours remaining.
The nurses drew back from the brink in March of that year in return for a Labour Court recommendation which conceded increases worth up to 14.5 per cent and a Government commitment that three outstanding pay issues would be addressed by a Commission on Nursing.
When the commission reported last September, it said two of the three issues should be addressed "as a matter or urgency".
One of these was increased allowances for nurses holding extra qualifications, which was referred to the Labour Court. The other issue was increased pay differentials for ward sisters, who would become clinical nurse managers, and the creation of a new grade of clinical nurse specialist.
The commission gave a weaker endorsement to the third pay-related issue of long-service increments for staff nurses.
Processing such a complex claim normally takes many months, especially given the public pay implications. Yet both sides were in the Labour Court on all three issues within six weeks of the commission's recommendations.
The dispute assumed a dangerous momentum on the day the nursing commission report was released. The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, said he would refer the three pay-related recommendations to the public service committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, to be dealt with "at the appropriate time".
The Nursing Alliance reacted angrily. Its chairman, Mr Liam Doran, demanded that the pay issues be addressed immediately, in line with the commitments from the previous government. It took six days for the Government to announce that it would permit the Health Service Employers' Association (HSEA) to deal with the union claims through the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) and Labour Court. By then it was too late.
The largest union in the alliance, Mr Doran's Irish Nurses' Organisation, had already embarked on State-wide mass meetings. The Nursing Alliance is now seeking to increase the top of the staff nurses' scale from £22,000 to £26,200, and the top of the ward sisters' scale from £24,650 to £34,621 in their new roles as clinical nurse managers.
There are appropriate adjustments for higher grades, and the unions want the qualifications allowance increased from the current £347 a year to 10 per cent of basic pay.
There are strong arguments for further substantial increases in nurses' pay, not just because of the increasing demands of the job but because of labour supply economics. As the SIPTU nursing officer, Mr Oliver MacDonagh, puts it, "Why should school-leavers choose a career that requires a lot of training and qualifications when they can earn more in telesales or financial services?"
He feels strongly that the Government is the author of its own misfortunes by making the nurses' dispute a public sector pay issue.
However, employer sources yesterday criticised the unions for not doing more to explore the issues before balloting members for strike action. They said further progress was possible in direct negotiation.
IMPACT's national officer for the health services, Mr Kevin O'Driscoll, said the claim was about bigger issues than simply counting the cost. Even school-leavers who opt for nursing courses frequently emigrate because they can earn more, are held in greater professional esteem and can enjoy better working conditions and life styles abroad.
Mr Doran has warned that there is a "very strong view among our members that the three pay-related issues have to be addressed". He felt no further progress on long-service increments for staff nurses and the qualifications allowances was possible at local level. He was more optimistic about progress on pay differentials for sisters, but did not demur from Mr MacDonagh's view that "we are still on a collision course".