Nurses claim threat to pay rise linked to protests

NURSES claim a threat to withhold a pay increase due next month is linked to their accident and emergency protests despite health service managers’ denials.

In a worsening of the row between the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Health Service Executive (HSE), nurses reiterated their claims that the attempt to block a 3.5% pay rise due under benchmarking was a “retaliatory strike” for their ongoing campaign to highlight overcrowding in A&Es.

However, the HSE yesterday claimed the threat was a result of failure by the INO to co-operate with plans to introduce and train a new healthcare assistant grade.