INMO strike - Labour Court must now get involved

The failure of the Labour Court to make any formal intervention in the nurses’ dispute with the Government to prevent them taking strike action in the first place is worrying, particularly in light of the overtime ban by psychiatric nurses and yesterday’s protest by 500 general practitioners.

Anyone concerned about the escalation of industrial action by nurses should note how an equally protracted dispute involving gardaí in the latter half of 2016 was settled. In November of that year, members of the Garda Representative Association and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors called off a strike following intervention by the Labour Court in what had become an increasingly difficult row. The strike would have been a first ever and its cancellation was met with a collective sigh of relief from Government.