Little headway made in nurses’ pay talks
Minimal headway was made at a meeting between health service management and nursing unions ahead of planned strike action over pay and staff shortages.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) was staying silent last night, although one source said there was nothing to report from the talks.
Claims by the Psychiatric Nurses Organisation (PNA) that health service management is preparing to bring forward proposals for pay parity between nurses and other graduate health professionals, such as physiotherapists and speech and language therapists, were dismissed by government.
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which oversees public service pay, said there was “no basis or validity” to them.
A department spokesperson said the position continues to be that under the terms of the current public service pay agreement, there can be no cost-increasing claims for improvements in the pay and conditions of government employees.
Speaking in the Dáil, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “We will do everything we reasonably can to prevent this strike from happening but we need to bear in mind that there is already a pay deal in place, a pay deal agreed not just with nurses and midwives but with all public servants, and that pay deals runs until 2020.
“It would not be fair or affordable to offer a special deal for one group in the public service and then say to every other group in the public service that we have no money left for them. That would not be right.”
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said the Government has “had years to address recruitment and retention crisis in our hospitals, and we see how this is crippling our health service, but it has completely failed”.
Health Minister Simon Harris said the Government would not be deviating from the public service pay agreement, which both the government and unions, including the INMO, had signed up to.
He urged all sides to put their shoulders to the wheel to come up with a remedy or solution, but cautioned that any such remedy must be found within the framework of the public service pay agreement.
Mr Harris said in addition to next Monday’s follow-up meeting between health management and unions, the oversight group that manages implementation of the public service pay agreement will meet unions on Friday.
He welcomed what he called “constructive engagement” between management and unions.
The INMO has scheduled six 24-hour strikes by its 37,000 members on January 30 as well as February 5, 7, 12, 13, and 14.
The 6,000 members of the PNA will refuse to do overtime on January 31 and February 1, 5, 6, and 7.
Escalating strike action will happen in tandem with the INMO on February 12, 13, and 14.
