INMO accepts Lansdowne Road Agreement
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) have voted to accept the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
71% of INMO members voted in favour of it after a series of meetings held over the past eight weeks, but said that the level of pay restoration proposed is "very minimal when compared with the draconian cuts" imposed over the past six years on nurses and midwives.
They also said that the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, must now move to "actively recruit frontline staff, in return for pay moderation".
They have called on the Government to agree on a recruitment campaign to bring 4,000 additional nurses and midwives into the health service "in the shortest possible timeframe", in tandem with INMO members accepting the Lansdowne Road Agreement.
INMO General Secretary, Liam Doran, said: “It was quite clear, from the workplace meetings held over the last six to eight weeks, that morale, in our health service, continues to be very low and members have not yet felt the benefits of any economic recovery. Members told us, repeatedly, that, although accepting the terms of the agreement, they viewed the measures, with regard to pay restoration, as being very small and the absolute minimum that was required.
"They also told us that the government must now use the benefits of economic growth, to recruit staff against the backdrop of pay moderation within this agreement. Over 5,000 nursing/midwifery posts were lost and, while recruitment has now recommenced, all of these posts must be restored in the shortest possible timeframe.
“This agreement will now be accepted, and, therefore, the government is getting certainty with regard to pay. It must, therefore, acknowledge this commitment of nurses and midwives by actively recruiting, with dynamic incentives, to attract our recently emigrated nurses and midwives back to this country, as an absolute priority."
The INMO will now vote in favour of the agreement when the Public Services Committee, of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, votes, to arrive at an overall position, in late September.
