Bon Secours nurses to hold protest today over pay cuts

UP to 800 nurses working for the country’s largest private healthcare provider will stage lunchtime protests at four hospitals today to highlight their dissatisfaction at unilateral pay cuts.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), which represents nurses at the four Bon Secours hospitals in Cork, Dublin, Galway, and Tralee, claims their employer reneged on a Labour Relations Commission agreement, brokered in February, to restore to nurses a 5% cut deducted from their January pay.

According to the INMO, this cut was announced in December and implemented unilaterally in January. When the issue ended up in the LRC, after the union claimed the company had breached the Payment of Wages Act by imposing the cuts, part of the agreement was that money deducted in January would be restored regardless of the final outcome of the process.

The matter was subsequently referred to the Labour Court, where the company’s decision to reduce wages by 4-5% was upheld and a date of May 1 was set for commencement of deductions. At this stage, the January monies had not been repaid.

The INMO objected to the May 1 date for commencement of deductions given it did not yet have the result of a ballot from members in relation to the pay cuts. The Bon Secours subsequently deferred the first deduction until June 25, at which point 10% was deducted (5% for May and 5% for June). INMO industrial relations officer Michael Dineen said the deduction was illegal given the nurses had balloted to reject it.

“The employer has no authority to do this, regardless of the Labour Court recommendation. It is in breach of the Payment of Wages Act for an employer to reduce pay without the consent of his employees.”

A statement from the Bon Secours Health System said the cuts were necessary to “ensure the viability of the group and the sustainability of jobs” in the face of cuts in reimbursement rates imposed by private health insurers on January 1.

The statement added that the INMO was the only union in the process not to accept the Labour Court recommendation and that the “Bon Secours Health System remains available to the INMO for discussion to resolve any staff concerns”.

However, Mr Dineen said it now looked like the INMO would “in all probability be pursuing individual pay claims on behalf of members” if the situation was not resolved. He said patient care would not be affected by today’s action.