NURSES can present a strong case on pay. The current scale for staff nurses starts at £13,822 and rises to £17,485 over nine years.
The current offer to the nursing unions is an extra £100 at each point of the nine year scale, plus a long service increment of £400 after three years at the top of the scale and another £350 after six years. For a nurse with 15 years' service, this would mean a pay rise of 6.27 per cent.
For many nurses, however, the increase would be worth less than I per cent. The nursing unions are also being asked to agree to the introduction of twolower grades at between £1,000 and £2,000 less than the current starting point. Entrants would therefore start at less than £12,000 and take two years longer to reach the maximum.
Nurses are currently linked with grade IV clerical/administrative workers in the health boards and, indirectly, with executive officers in the Civil Service.
The union representing executive officers, the Public Service Executive Union, has recently completed a restructuring deal under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work which is much better than anything on offer to the nurses.
Over a three period under the PCW, executive officers will see their pay scale rise from £9,422 to £10,175 at the starting point and from £18,404 to £21,682 at the top. This is an increase of 17.8 per cent at the top, or 10.8 per cent after allowing for the 7 per cent standard PCW increases.
Nursing managers have no link with other professions. But the disparity in pay is striking compared with other managers in either the public or private sectors.
Public health nurses earn between £2,000 and £3,000 less than community welfare officers in the health boards. They have similar responsibilities and, unlike CWOs, are required to have professional qualifications.
A ward sister can expect to earn between £18,950 and £19,920 a year. A higher executive officer will earn between £21,208 and £26,222 under the PCW restructuring.
An assistant matron can expect to earn a maximum of £22,856 after eight years. She may be responsible for a staff of 100 to 200 people and a budget of £3 or £4 million.
There are no direct comparisons in the public service. But in private enterprise someone with that level of responsibility could expect to earn between £35,00 and £50,000.
Directors of nursing in a large hospital earn a maximum of £27,815 after seven years. They would be responsible for a staff of 500 to 700 and budgets of £20 to £30 million. Salaries of £100,000 would not be exceptional in the private sector.
The principal of a secondary school could expect to earn £40,000.