The 7 1/2-week-old nurses' dispute is effectively over following a decision by members of the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) to vote, albeit it by a relatively narrow margin, in favour of settlement proposals.
The outcome of the ballot of INO members was 54 per cent in favour and 46 per cent against the proposals, which will see the working week for nurses cut to 37 1/2 hours by June next year.
The INO has almost 40,000 members, but just over 31,000 were eligible to vote in the ballot, with most student nurses, agency nurses and members working in private hospitals excluded. The union said that there had been a 70 per cent turnout.
The ballot outcome means that ongoing industrial action by INO nurses in the form of a work-to-rule, under which they were refusing to deal with non-essential phone calls or carry out clerical or IT duties, is now over. It is to be lifted at 8am today.
While the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) was also involved in the dispute, the result of the ballot of its 6,000-plus members on the settlement proposals will not be known for over a week. However, the general secretary of the PNA, Des Kavanagh, said last night that even if PNA members voted to reject the settlement proposals he would not be advocating at this stage that they continue with a campaign of industrial action.
"It would not be wise for the PNA, with 6,500 members, to take on this battle on our own," he said.
Apart from a reduction in their working week, under the settlement proposals put forward by the National Implementation Body a commission will be set up to establish whether nurses' hours can be reduced to 35 a week. Their claim for a 10.6 per cent pay rise will be progressed through benchmarking.
INO general secretary Liam Doran said that the vote allowed the campaign for a 35-hour week and fair recognition for nurses and midwives to enter a new procedural phase. "I fully realise that many of our members are disappointed that their goals have not yet been fully achieved, but I call on the other parties to this dispute to now play their part in ensuring that nurses and midwives can at last have confidence in a procedure that will be fair to them," he said.
The result of the INO ballot, at the end of a dispute which was estimated to be costing the Health Service Executive up to €3 million a week, was welcomed last night by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, and the HSE.