THE Labour Court is expected to recommend significant improvements today in the £50 million package on offer to the nurses. However, the offer may be conditional on the nursing unions calling off the strike due to begin next Monday.
Last night the general secretary of the Irish Nurses' Organisation, Mr R.J. Madden, welcomed the decision of the court to issue a recommendation.
The Psychiatric Nurses' Association of Ireland and SIPTU, which also represents nurses, have already accepted the £50 million offer by the Government. They are simply taking supportive action on behalf of their colleagues in the INO and IMPACT.
As IMPACT has only 2,500 nurses and narrowly rejected the last offer, the key group in deciding whether the strike goes ahead remains the INO.
It will have to decide if the extra concessions offered will be enough to defer a strike. After recommending two deals that were rejected, the executive will be loath to recommend another that will not travel.
However, the prospect of the Labour Court offer being withdrawn if the strike goes ahead will concentrate minds - especially as there is no certainty of a better offer from the Government later.
As Mr Madden told the Labour Court on Wednesday, the INO wants to call a special delegate conference to consider the situation. However, under the INO constitution its executive can defer strike action pending such a conference.
The leaders of the other unions welcomed the court's decision. The general secretary of the PNA, Mr Des Kavanagh, said the issues were too important not to make every effort to resolve them. But he warned that the final arbiters would be the ordinary members.
The general secretary of IMPACT, Mr Peter McLoone, said that he hoped the recommendation would address "in a substantive way" the issues put by the unions.
There was no comment from the employer side last night. It can, however, be expected to accept the Labour Court recommendation, even if it has to concede more on pay, staffing numbers or early retirement.