The Nursing Alliance is to consider the Labour Court's proposals to resolve the nurses' dispute when it meets in Dublin today.
Last night alliance leaders met the Health Service Employers' Agency to clarify a number of issues and discuss arrangements for a possible return to work.
It is expected that the Labour Court recommendation, combined with the clarifications at the HSEA, could give significant benefits to at least 6,500 staff nurses. The recommendation is to be issued today by Mr Finbarr Flood, chairman of the Labour Court.
A new senior staff nurse grade is expected to provide at least 2,000 promotional posts and Clinical Nurse Manager and Clinical Nurse Specialist grades another 1,000.
The extension of allowances worth between £1,000 and £1,500 to Public Health Nurses, psychiatric and mental handicap nurses should benefit about half of the 7,000 members of those disciplines.
All 28,000 nurses from junior staff nurse to director of nursing will also receive the 2 per cent pay increase due under Partnership 2000. However, some strike committees are already calling on their unions to reject the proposals before hearing the details.
INO members in the west have expressed opposition to any formula for a settlement based on creating a new senior staff nurse grade based on service. The INO industrial relations officer for the region, Ms Clare Treacy, said feeling on the ground was that the proposed posts should be filled on merit, rather than on long service.
A spokesman for SIPTU members in University College Hospital, Galway, echoed her views.
At least two strike committees at Dublin hospitals are understood to have notified the INO that they are opposed to any return to work before a ballot on settlement proposals concludes.
Last night the INO's director of industrial relations, Mr David Hughes, confirmed there had been "a backlash" from some members. But he added that it was "very premature for people to reject a deal not on the table".
He hoped the Labour Court would get it right. "I am appealing to people to read the detail before rushing to judgment," he added. However, unless the package addressed all the issues adequately the union would not be recommending it for acceptance.
Previous offers to resolve the nurses' dispute have been scuttled by a strong negative reaction at grassroots level before the terms were even announced. The unions are going to try and agree a common position this afternoon.
After an initial meeting at noon, the executives of the four unions involved, the INO, SIPTU, IMPACT and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association, will meet separately to consider their position. They will reassemble at 4 p.m. and are expected to hold a press conference by 5 p.m.
Distribution of the details of the Labour Court recommendation to strike committees will begin this afternoon.
SIPTU and the PNA had announced at the beginning of the strike that they would ballot members on the picket line but there are considerable difficulties in doing so for the largest union, the INO, which has 23,000 members on strike. It would probably take at least a week to complete the ballot, during which time nurses would have to continue picketing.
Even if the unions decide to allow a return to work before a ballot it may take up to 10 days to clear the backlog of patients.