Nurses pledge support for public health doctors
The move is significant as the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), with 29,000 members, is the first union to publicly back the doctors. INO industrial relations chief David Hughes said the motion was a “favourable gesture” that could ultimately lead to the organisation joining the strike.
All of the unions representing workers in the medical area will meet under the auspices of ICTU next Friday to discuss the strike by the doctors. An ICTU spokesperson said it would be up to individual unions to ballot their members on whether they should go out on strike in support of the doctors.
Nurses face losing benchmarking payments if they go out on strike, so it is thought their industrial action would take the form of refusing to pass a picket line manned by striking doctors.
The support for the doctors came at the end of a day of militant warnings from the INO leadership. Nurses are demanding a 35-hour working week and the INO leadership warned of widespread industrial chaos if this key demand was not acceded to.
Speaking at the INO annual conference in Galway, industrial relations chief Dave Hughes said a refusal to reduce working hours was “not an option”. INO president Clare Spillane said the union would initiate whatever campaign was necessary to secure the same working week as other officer grades in the healthservices.
Nurses’ representatives are due to attend the Labour Court on May 20 to argue for a four-hour reduction in the average 39-hour working week, bringing them in line with other health service workers, including physiotherapists, radiographers and clerical officers.
At the moment, nurses receive a 25% shift allowance in respect of actual nights worked, an added €10 for working Saturdays and double time on a Sunday. However, Mr Hughes said they are seeking a 33% shift allowance, in line with the industry norm.
Their final demand is for a Dublin weighting allowance, in the region of €3,800. Mr Hughes said failure by the court to recognise their claim would cause “murder”.
