Pay and care conditions top nursing union's change agenda

Nursing chiefs tonight decided to put pay and standards of care at the top of the union’s campaign for change.

A meeting of the Irish Nursing Organisation’s (INO’s) Executive Council set in place the emergency motion for the conference debate on its pay campaign.

The motion calls on the incoming Executive Council to organise a national pay rally to allow nurses and midwives express their disgust and anger at the injustices of their relative pay and hours of work.

A spokeswoman for the INO said: “The pay issue will be debated tomorrow and it is expected to be a hot debate.”

The emergency motion, headed ’21-years is a mighty long time’, declares there is no justification for childcare workers being paid more than nurses and midwives in the first 21 years of their career and being the second lowest paid among the frontline care staff.

Delegates will be debating the motion which advocates endorsing the eight pay claims lodged with the Health Service Executive (HSE) on behalf of nurses and midwives.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said: “Our pay campaign will continue, and be further developed, during this conference and employers and government should move to respond positively to the legitimate pay and working hours anomalies that exist, immediately.”

He has described nurses and midwives as the hardest working, most productive and most flexible grade in the health workforce.

Privatisation and staff levels are also set to dominate the agenda at the INO conference in the Slieve Russell Hotel in Ballyconnell.

Delegates will also carry out a comprehensive review of the INO’S pay campaign and discuss the creeping privatisation of the Irish Public Health Service.

A first ever motion of no confidence in Health Minister Mary Harney’s management of the health service is to be debated by the 350 INO delegates on Friday morning.

Ms Harney has said she is unable to attend the conference due to a long-standing engagement, and the INO confirmed Minister of State Brian Lenihan would be addressing the delegates on Friday.

The conference will debate a total of 70 motions covering a range of issues from student nurses, specialist nurses and others working in hospital and the community and management.

After an emergency motion on the pay campaign is debated tomorrow (Thursday) morning, Professor Allyson Pollock, from the University of Edinburgh, will speaking on the effect of privatisation on the public health service.

The chief executive officer of the International Council of Nurses, Judith Oulten, is also due to speak on any impacts upon standards of care from inappropriate staffing levels.