Nurses rally over lower pay plan for graduates

Nursing unions opposed to HSE plans to hire recruits at 80% of current pay rates have pledged to target TDs in their attempts to hobble the plan.

Graduates who could apply for the 1,000 positions being advertised by the HSE are instead likely to try and attend politicians’ constituency clinics in a bid to make the HSE maintain current pay scales.

Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) held a demonstration in Croke Park on Saturday and have promised further action in a bid to scupper the proposal.

Under the terms of the new scheme, those entering nursing will begin on a salary of €22,000 compared with a salary of about €26,400 as has been the case. The public service recruitment embargo is being lifted to allow for the hiring of the graduate nurses, but both the INMO and the PNA have called for a boycott.

At Saturday’s event, attended by 500 nurses, the unions allowed overseas recruitment agencies to set up stalls, offering readymade alternatives to staying at home and working for less.

INMO general secretary Liam Doran said the HSE plan was “fundamentally flawed” while yesterday Seamus Murphy, PNA deputy general secretary, said he believed the boycott would be successful.

He said he believed about two-thirds of 2012 graduates were in attendance on Saturday and that they will “get the word out” about the boycott.

“The way that it is going to be fixed is if the boycott will be successful and at the moment we feel that it will,” he said.

“The unfairness of it is quite unbelievable.”

On allowing overseas recruitment firms to attend the event, he said: “If we are asking people to boycott this unfortunately we have to give them an alternative.”

On measures to overturn the scheme, he said: “A lot of graduates themselves will try to get to TDs’ clinics.”

He said many graduates in recent years had entered the profession with “legitimate expectations” on pay levels, and that falling salaries, along with limited job opportunities, had already meant many graduates had already left Ireland to work elsewhere.

“I feel very bad for these people,” Mr Murphy said, adding that some graduates had left well-paid jobs to enter nursing, and were expected to work for even less.

Liam Doran said direct employment of nurses instead of using agency staff would effect huge savings, without the need for imposing lower pay on new graduate nurses.

“This graduate programme is fundamentally flawed as it will result in up to 1,000 experienced nurses/midwives being let go to be replaced by new graduates who will have the full responsibilities of all other qualified nurses/midwives, but paid 80% of the agreed rate,” he said.

The unions are also calling on the HSE to explore other cost-saving avenues instead of imposing the new recruitment plan.