THE DISPUTE over new contracts for agency nurses working for the HSE, which has caused some limited disruption to services over recent weeks, has been resolved.
This followed the intervention by the body overseeing the implementation of the Croke Park agreement.
The National Implementation Body recommended that the Department of Finance and trade unions should engage on a new public service-wide deal that would conform with a new EU directive on agency workers. This directive, which is scheduled to come into effect in December, states that agency workers should receive equal treatment to full-time staff.
The National Implementation Body urged that non-pay rate issues arising from the new contracts should be dealt with as part of a process involving the Labour Relations Commission.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation told members over the weekend that as this proposed engagement with the Department of Finance could take some time “it is untenable to continue to advise not to avail of agency work on the lower rates”.
The union had been advising members over the past few weeks not to make themselves available for work for the agencies providing staff to the HSE on new lower contract rates.
The Psychiatric Nurses Association said that it had left it up to themselves whether to make themselves available for work.
The row stemmed from moves by the HSE to put in place a new system for securing staff provided by agencies including nurses, non-consultant doctors and other healthcare personnel. The HSE has said the measures will generate €40 million in savings.
Unions argued that as part of the new arrangements, payments to the nurses provided by the agencies were reduced significantly in some cases. Agencies said the new rates of pay were broadly in line with those paid to staff directly employed by the HSE.
Up to the launch of the new contracts in March, nurses provided by agencies were paid the 10th point on the staff nurse pay scale, regardless of experience.
Under the revised plans, nurses with less than two years’ experience are paid at the minimum point of the new lower entry scale introduced. Other staff are paid on the fifth point of the existing scale. Unions said agency nurses also received reduced payments for working at night, on Sundays and on public holidays under the revised arrangements.
Following the unilateral introduction of the new contracts in March, the INMO and other unions advised members not to make themselves available for work on the new rates.
In a note to members posted on the its website over the weekend, INMO general secretary Liam Doran said: “The past three weeks have been difficult for members of the organisation who have been impacted by the HSE actions. The agency contract was put in place without the necessary consultation required under the Public Service Agreement.
“We have not succeeded in having the original rates restored as part of this current phase of the campaign. However, substantial progress has been made in recognising the requirements of employers’ under the Public Service Agreement and the entitlement of agency workers to equal treatment,” he added.
