€2 439Sheaghdha A YEAR MORE FOR NURSES
»»7.3% pay rise offered at last minute »»Deal hope after Labour Court proposal
NURSES suspended their three-day rolling strike last night after they were offered a 7.3% pay rise of up to €2,439.
It is believed the deal could be ratified as early as tomorrow. The last-minute cancellation from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation came after the Labour Court intervened with a recommendation.
INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: “There is still more negotiation to be done but we are at a point
where we believe strikes can be suspended.”
The Psychiatric Nurses Association followed the INMO’S lead a short time later and also called off their co-ordinated demos.
The Labour Court recommendation made progress across all areas of concern to the INMO, including the key areas of safe staffing and addressing recruitment and retention problems.
However, the 7.3% pay rise offered falls short of the 12% hike that had been demanded.
Among other proposals, the recommendation includes: ■■guaranteed multi-annual funding to maintain safe staffing levels
■■significant changes to salary scale and allowances ■■increased education and training opportunities, and ■■separately, an expert group to examine, in a short period of time, remaining pay and reform
issues including those affecting senior management grades.
Nurses could benefit from a hike of almost €2,500 extra per year if these proposals are accepted.
Ms Ni Sheaghdha said: “After more than 30 hours of negotiations, the Executive Council have agreed sufficient progress has been made to suspend strikes and consider the Labour Court’s recommendations. Members will be kept fully informed and will have the final say in a ballot. Safe staffing along with recruitment and retention were key concerns for us, and we have made progress on both.
“We are immensely grateful for our determined nurse and midwife members, who are standing up for our patients and our professions. They have at all times worked to ensure patient safety during this dispute.”
Health Minister Simon
Harris said: “This is welcome news for patients across the country but also for the nurses and midwives, who did not take the decision to strike lightly.
“I look forward to services resuming, to getting back to normal and to [staff] doing all they can to catch up on lost time over the past days.
“I want to thank everybody who’s worked so hard to get us to where we are tonight.”
Thousands of appointments from the first three days of action have to be rescheduled.