The militancy of nurses will have to be tempered by realistic expectations if there is to be a settlement of their dispute. The health system, under severe strain because of their work-to-rule, has been disrupted by a temporary withdrawal of their labour. Pressure intensified with the lengthening of the duration of work stoppages to two hours yesterday, extending to three hours by the end of this week. The timely treatment and the wellbeing of patients is being jeopardised.
There is no denying that many nurses feel they have been neglected and discriminated against, in terms of working hours and pay, over many years. But the Labour Court arbitrated on these claims and the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) chose to reject its recommendations.
Instead, they embarked on industrial action. Nurses may have been encouraged in their militancy by a belief that the Government would not risk disrupting the health services in advance of an election. In that, they are mistaken. With the Garda Síochána, teachers and other public service unions preparing to lodge claims if an award is made outside of the benchmarking process, the Government has no option but to hold the line on pay.
The National Implementation Body, representing Government, trade unions and employers, has been unsuccessful in negotiating a compromise between the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the nursing unions. Such failures reflect the distance that exists between the parties over a 10.6 per cent pay claim and 35-hour working week. The special pay claim is particularly problematical. It amounts to a nurses' relativity claim, based on comparative pay for a number of social care grades. The benchmarking process was designed to end such claims.
A special conference will be held by the INO and PNA tomorrow to assess developments in the campaign and to consider a further escalation of industrial action through a ban on overtime and a programme of work stoppages. Given the failure of industrial action to deliver results so far, and yesterday's threat by the HSE to penalise nurses for their work-to-rule by reducing pay by 13.16 per cent from May 18th, it will be difficult for union leaders to urge restraint. But further disruption of hospital services will impact negatively on sick citizens and on the perception of nursing as a caring profession.
Nurses have valid complaints. But they are not badly paid. Some progress has already been made on the working hours issue within a reformed health service. But pay will have to be addressed through benchmarking. The sooner the parties return to negotiations, the better.