Nurses vow to escalate action over work hours

A NURSES’ dispute over a shorter working week will escalate unless the first step towards a resolution is delivered today.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) warned health service managers last night that nurses in at least one of three hospitals in the south involved in the dispute are ready to work to contract only if the nationally agreed 37.5 hour working week is not introduced in their hospitals.

INO official Patsy Doyle was speaking after a lunchtime nurses’ protest outside Bantry General Hospital in West Cork. Direct patient care was not affected.

Up to 50 INO members walked out just before 1pm to highlight how the Health Service Executive (HSE) South has failed to implement the shorter working week for its members in Bantry. Nurses working in Mallow General and Kerry General are also working longer hours.

The national deal on the reduced working week was agreed in May 2007. The implementation date was June 1, 2008.

It has been implemented in Cork’s Mercy University Hospital, the South Infirmary/Victoria University Hospital, Cork University Hospital, Cork University Maternity Hospital and St Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital.

Ms Doyle accused HSE managers of treating the city hospitals differently to three involved in this dispute.

“We have a situation not of our making,” she said. “Three months post implementation date, and the city nurses are enjoying the shorter working week and our country colleagues are not. The HSE says it’s their intention to implement it but they won’t give us a date. They expect us to live with that platitude.”

INO members in Kerry have indicated they are prepared to work to strict contract terms from October — working only the hours they are paid for — unless the issue is resolved.

However, health chiefs moved after yesterday’s protest to diffuse the situation.

Ms Doyle said she has been told by HSE management that they intend to sign a document today implementing the shorter working week — but in Bantry only. She said the INO wants to see this document before deciding its next course of action. A meeting to discuss a possible escalation of the dispute is planned for early next week.

In a statement issued yesterday, Bantry General Hospital said it is committed to implementing the shorter working week.

“Hospital management are currently in discussions with nursing unions, with the assistance of the Labour Relations Commission, to introduce the 37.5 working week within the agreed national parameters,” said Eleanor O’Donovan, the hospital’s general manager.

“We aim to have new rosters in place at the earliest opportunity.”