Nurses seek public support in fight for a fair deal

ON February 2, a national ballot of 40,000 nurses and midwives indicated a 96% vote in favour of a campaign of action in pursuance of certain priority claims, including a 35-hour week.

This decision comes after six years of serious effort by the Irish Nurses’ Organisation and Psychiatric Nurses’ Association to make progress on these issues through discussion and negotiation.

Unfortunately, all efforts to have serious engagement have been rebuffed by health service management.

All of the claims at the heart of this campaign only seek to give to nurses and midwives what is already enjoyed by all other health professionals, clerical, administrative and management grades.

The key issues are a 35-hour week, the elimination of a pay anomaly which sees an untrained social care worker earn €3,000 per annum more than the degree-level graduate nurse and, ultimately, the same pay for the degree-level nurse as that of the degree-level chiropodist, play therapist and all other health professionals.

These are the requirements to value, respect and reward the contribution of our 40,000 members to the public health service on a 24-hour, seven-day basis.

These claims have been outstanding for up to 27 years.

The current payment system means graduate nurses with a four-year honours degree will take 21 years before they earn more than the unqualified social care worker who is reporting to them

On 14 separate occasions since 2001, other grades, groups and categories in the public service have had major issues and anomalies addressed, in addition to the first benchmarking exercise and all other national agreements — yet this path is being denied to nurses and midwives.

In the past six years we have lost 12,000 nurses who have chosen to emigrate and the current trend suggests 70% of new graduates will leave within two years of qualification.

In the same six-year period we have had to bring in 10,000 overseas nurses to maintain our health service.

It costs over €80,000 to educate each nurse to degree level in this country. There is a worldwide shortage of nurses which means the USA, for example, will want one million nurses between now and 2016.

When you consider that the Irish graduate nurse is a highly skilled clinician and speaks English, it can be seen that these countries will aggressively recruit our nurses if we do not offer them attractive pay and conditions.

The plan of action is designed to minimise disruption to patient services and we remain committed to ensuring all emergency services are maintained.

However, our strong preference is for constructive engagement with government and health service management. The focus should be on reform and recognition, and if this occurs, then everyone can benefit from this set of negotiations.

Nurses and midwives have always tried to be advocates for our patients. The INO’s constant highlighting of inadequate staffing and services in such areas as A&E and care of the elderly confirm our ongoing dedication to this task.

Confrontation is not our aim, but it must be understood that radical improvements in the pay and conditions of nurses and midwives are needed now. We will always remain committed to our patients and we ask the public for their support at this time. Equity and fairness is all we are seeking.

Madeline Spiers

President

Irish Nurses Organisation

Whitworth Building

North Brunswick Street

Dublin 7