More than 40,000 nurses will escalate their industrial action to include work stoppages at a number of hospitals across the State on Friday if no progress is made at last ditch talks today to try to resolve the dispute.
The decision to ramp up their campaign of action, in the event of no progress being made at today's talks, was taken by the executives of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) at a meeting yesterday afternoon. Local strike committees across the State have been told to be ready for action.
PNA general secretary Des Kavanagh said the executives of both unions were angry at the lack of progress being made at talks to try to resolve the dispute. The talks began a week ago under the aegis of the National Implementation Body (NIB) - the main troubleshooting mechanism under the social partnership process.
The nurses are seeking a 10.6 per cent pay rise and a 35-hour working week. At present they work 39 hours a week.
Sources close to the talks said no progress had been made on the pay issue and health service management had offered to reduce the nurses' working week by only an hour, which the INO and PNA found unacceptable.
Furthermore, it is understood the HSE Employers Agency has told the nursing unions that even if they signed up to Towards 2016 at this stage their members may not qualify for a 3 per cent pay rise which was due last December. The threat was made on the basis that they had not refrained from industrial action.
The nurses are now in their fifth week of industrial action in the form of a work to rule. Under this, they are refusing to deal with non-essential phone calls or carry out clerical or IT duties.
The HSE says their action is putting patients at risk and late last week it instructed hospitals to cancel elective surgery and outpatient appointments in order to safeguard patient care during the work to rule. These cancellations are likely to take effect from later this week.
Mr Kavanagh said the unions and employers were due to meet the NIB again at 3pm today and if there was no resolution by tonight, the unions would announce details of work stoppages for later this week.
They had already planned one- hour work stoppages for more than 50 hospitals and mental health centres across the State for last week but these were called off to allow for the talks. It is understood at least some of these will be revived for Friday if no progress is made at today's talks.
In addition, the executives of both unions will meet again on Thursday to decide whether to escalate their campaign of action further. At this meeting they will consider work stoppages for "every day until polling day", Mr Kavanagh said.
The escalation may also include protests to disrupt the election canvass of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
INO general secretary Liam Doran said only "a meaningful offer capable of resolving the dispute" would prevent an escalation of the nurses' campaign of industrial action. The issues in dispute had been talked up and down for days, he added.
Brendan Mulligan, assistant chief executive of the HSEEA, said he still remained hopeful that an agreement could be reached on the hours issue.
"The employers' proposals on the hours issue provides a framework to examine and implement a reduced working week for nurses which is consistent with the Labour Court recommendation," he added.
A major gap remains between the sides going into today's talks.