HSE set to cut student nurses’ pay in dispute

NURSING organisations have reacted angrily after the discovery that student nurses are included in the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) threat to dock the pay of participants in the work-to-rule crisis.

A letter sent by the HSE to all nurses late last week was also received by fourth-year student nurses, informing them that they would have 13.16% of their pay withheld as a result of the dispute.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said the HSE had sunk to a new low in involving students in the row. “Students are in hospitals to gain clinical experience. They’re not supposed to be answering phones or running errands for anyone in the first place so they can’t be accused of working to rule,” said INO deputy general secretary, Dave Hughes.