Nurses threaten strike action as work-week saga drags on

IN A sign of their growing impatience, the Irish Nurses Organisation has threatened industrial action over the non-implementation of new rosters for a shorter working week.

The INO said the new 37.5-hour week, which was due to be implemented in June, is still not in place in the northeast and parts of Cork and Galway.

The union has begun balloting members in Trim, Co Meath, and will also ballot members in counties Monaghan and Cavan if progress is not made.

A lunchtime protest was held at Cavan General Hospital where Minister for Health, Mary Harney, was called to fulfil her commitment to reduce nurses’ working week.

INO industrial relations officer Joe Hoolan said: “The failure to implement this entitlement is causing anger and frustration among our members. Nurses and midwives in this hospital are looking at their colleagues elsewhere who now enjoy a shorter working week”.

The shorter working week is just one of the concessions won by the INO after a strike last year. Agreement on the shorter working week was brokered by the National Implementation Body with effect from June 1 on the condition it was achieved through local negotiations and without any reduction in service to patients.

A spokesperson for the Health Service Executive (HSE) said management at Cavan General Hospital were committed to introducing the shorter working week in the shortest timeframe possible but that proposals on how it would be achieved had yet to be approved. A significant amount of work had already been done though, they said.

Rosters had been developed for staff in all specialities to generate greater efficiencies in work patterns, minimise the overlap of shifts, take account of staff paid and unpaid rest breaks and be compliant with the European Working Time Directive.

Management at the hospital have been holding talks on the issue with the Department of Health and the HSE and pointed out that the Labour Relations Commission would be visiting to offer assistance.