Strikes to hit mental handicap units
Registered Mental Handicap Nurses, angered that less-qualified workers in the sector have secured higher salaries, have voted in favour of strike action, up to and including, withdrawal of labour.
Health Service Employer’s Agency official John Delamare said if this happened, services other than residential could be affected.
“Talk of industrial action is premature, but if the worse came to the worst, potentially all mental handicap services could be affected, including community care services and educational services. It would affect the likes of the Brothers of Charity, the Daughters of Charity, St John Of Gods, Cope, Cheeverstown House in Dublin and St Michael’s in Dublin,” Mr Delamare said.
The decision by the Irish Nurses Organisation to ballot its RMHN members arose after unions representing unqualified house parents and assistant house parents in residential care settings secured a pay deal which will see them earn up to 2,000 more than degree-level nurses on each point of the salary scale.
Before the agreement, yet to be implemented, house parents and assistant house parents earned about 3,000 less than RMHN members, to whom they report.
The INO is unhappy that a benchmarking report, which compares public sector and private sector pay levels, will not address this anomaly, creating, it says, “a bizarre and untenable situation” for its members.
INO industrial relations director Dave Hughes said the union was due to meet the HSEA next Wednesday to discuss the problem.
“We can’t have supervisors being paid less than the people who report to them. There is also the problem of house parents who go on to train as nurses. Why will they do that now if their pay is better as an unqualified worker?” Mr Hughes said.
He said because of the vulnerability of clients looked after by mental care nurses, industrial action would be more likely to hit management.
“But we are not setting any pre-conditions before next Wednesday’s meeting. We expect the HSEA to make an offer.”
HSEA industrial relations chief Brendan Mulligan said it had already agreed to a working group to review the issue in dispute.
“But the bottom line is we are not in a position to interfere with the recommendations laid down by benchmarking,” Mr Mulligan said.
He said the new pay rates for house parents would apply to workers within the system, but any house parents entering the services would have to be qualified.
Meanwhile, the National Association for the Mentally Handicapped in Ireland has called on both sides in the dispute to resolve the situation immediately.
“The people who will suffer in the event of a withdrawal of labour are amongst the most vulnerable in society. We are calling on the HSEA and the INO to enter into meaningful discussions to prevent this dispute escalating,” NAMHI general secretary Deirdre Carroll said.
