Student nurses threaten strike over pay cut move

STUDENT nurses are threatening to strike over a Government plan to impose pay cuts, a move described by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) as reducing them to the level of “slave labour”.

Up to now, students were paid 80% of a staff salary during their nine-month placement in hospitals as part of their four-year degree programme. Last December, however, the Government decided last December to phase out the payment and abolish it in 2015.

Next Wednesday, around 6,000 student nurses and midwives will stage lunchtime protests at 13 hospitals in opposition to the cuts. The action will be followed by a march and rally in Dublin on Wednesday, February 16.