Concession to nurses could revive pay talks

An offer for nurses to retain double-time pay for working Sundays and holidays is understood to feature in a set of proposals tabled by health service management in an effort to progress Croke Park II among health workers.

It was reported last night that concessions had also been offered in relation to graduate nurses. Earlier this year, the Government came up with a “yellow pack” recruitment scheme offering new graduates 80% of the pay of qualified colleagues.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation organised a boycott of the scheme. It is understood new graduates will now be offered improved pay under the set of proposals. How-ever, nurses will be expected to work up to a 39-hour week in return for the concessions, which unions will have to put to members.

Talks to try to persuade even more unions to agree, even in principle, to proposals which would reinvigorate the Croke Park II deal on public service pay savings will continue today.

Labour Relations Commission chief executive Kieran Mulvey, charged by the Government with charting a deal between management and unions to cut €300m this year and €1bn by 2015 from the wage bill, said he would not anticipate what individual unions would do.

However, he said a “considerable number of groups” had indicated “in principle” that they are reasonably satisfied with what has been achieved.

“They have to go through a very detailed democratic process,” he said.

Last night, talks centred on finding a deal for the health sector, a feat made more difficult by the fact that €150m of the €300m required savings for 2013 must come from that sector.

Further details emerged yesterday of some of the agreements made with individual sections of the public service over the weekend.

In a statement to its 60,000 public service members, Impact, which backed the original Croke Park II proposals, said it was “satisfied” that its members will be exempt if the Government is forced to introduce legislation to impose permanent pay cuts, indefinite incremental freezes for all, and other changes that were not included in the first Croke Park II package.

The union, which has members in a number of sectors of the public service, said that while management still insisted on increased working weeks for staff, it had indicated a willingness to stagger the increases over two years.

“We also raised the issue of returning those who earn between €65,000 and €100,000, and whose pay is reduced, to their original pay rates,” said Impact in a statement. “We have now received clarification that half of this restoration will apply in Apr 2017, with the other half in Jan 2018.”