A decision by the National Implementation Body, representing Government, trade unions and employers, not to become directly involved in the nurses' dispute at this time is a worrying development that will add to the distress of patients and their concerned families. It reflects the considerable gap that remains to be bridged between the nursing unions and the Health Service Executive (HSE).
There is no denying the anxiety of those involved to bring this dispute to a speedy and principled conclusion. But there are issues at stake that go far beyond the specific claims being made by nurses. The Labour Court has already ruled on the pay and working-hour elements that form the kernel of the dispute. It recommended that the issues should be progressed through the established benchmarking process. The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) rejected that course of action and have engaged in an industrial dispute. An initial work-to-rule has been expanded to include work stoppages in a limited number of hospitals. That form of disruptive action will spread in the coming days, with inevitable consequences for the quality of patient care and the cancellation of elective surgery procedures.
Ignoring the mechanisms established under social partnership in order to deal with specific nurses' grievances would be a retrograde step. It would prompt a rash of similar claims by other groups of public servants and could eventually destroy national pay agreements. At the same time, it is important that nurses should be treated fairly and have their genuine grievances addressed. To that end, the National Implementation Body is expected to continue to explore the basis for a possible settlement of the dispute in behind-the-scene contacts.
The claim for a 35-hour working week is a long-standing demand that should be capable of resolution within a restructured health service. But its concession should not impact negatively on the quality of patient care. The special 10.6 per cent pay demand by 40,000 nurses is another matter. The INO claims an arrangement was made with radiographers last year that stepped outside of the benchmarking process. And their general secretary Liam Doran has hinted that an interim pay award, pending a full assessment of the claim through the benchmarking process, might provide an acceptable formula for his members.
Such an approach could hardly be said to honour established industrial relations machinery. But a general election is at hand. And the Government is under tremendous pressure to maintain services in hospitals that are already regarded as inadequate. Pushing a final resolution of the nurses' pay claim into the future would suit some Ministers. But it would also send a signal of weakness to teachers' unions and to other public sector groups. At a time of growing demands for public service reform and better value for money, the Government finds itself in a corner.