Mercy nursing staff balloted on industrial action

INDUSTRIAL action is thought to be on the cards following what was described as a very angry meeting of nursing staff in the Mercy University Hospital in Cork where management are cutting premium payments to staff in a bid to save money.

More than half of the 400 nurses employed at MUH attended last night’s emergency meeting to address the question of what action should be taken in the face of the management’s unilateral cost cutting measures.

Approximately 250 nurses were balloted at last night’s meeting and over the next couple of days the remaining members will be asked to cast their vote with a final decision expected by Friday afternoon.

Judging by the expressions of anger against management voiced at last night’s two-hour meeting, Michael Dineen of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO) said while it was impossible to preempt the outcome of any ballot, he would not be surprised if members voted for action.

Nurses, he stressed, were enraged by the unilateral move by managers which came at a time when talks were ongoing between unions and the hospital to explore methods of cutting back on spending.

A vote of no confidence in the CEO and board of governors at the hospital was unanimously carried at last night’s meeting. And “the provocative actions of management” to remove premium payments retrospectively from salaries was a clear breach of employment law, the INO has stressed.

“It is unprecedented that management would behave in such an arbitrary fashion given that the unions were actively engaged with them in exploring methods of achieving savings within their budget. It is not unreasonable to suggest that this engagement was used as a decoy as it is obvious that instructions had issued prior to their meeting of Friday last to cut employees’ pay.”

If this were in fact the case, it was a high-risk tactic which did not consider the human dimension of any potential industrial action, Mr Dineen said.

The MUH announced it was seeking voluntary unpaid leave, pay freezes and the axing of specific pay allowances in a drive to slash €3.2m from its budget. The cuts included suspension of the unsocial hours allowance, worth time and a sixth and suspension of the Saturday allowance, worth about €14.

MUH chief executive Pat Madden has stated that the hospital had no option but to seek significant savings because of the reduction in its HSE allowances.