AN AGENCY nurse who is a member of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has publicly questioned his union’s advice to members not to turn up for work since their rates of pay were cut on Monday, saying he and many of his colleagues have no choice if they are to be able to pay their bills. Michael Padden from Claremorris, Co Mayo, says while nursing agencies contracted by the HSE had cut their pay, he had no option but to keep turning up for work in order to feed his family and pay his mortgage.
In his 40s, he has more than 20 years of clinical experience but has been unable to get a full-time job since moving to Ireland from Canada for family reasons two years ago. He cannot get a job due to the moratorium on recruitment in the health sector and commutes to Dublin a number of days a week to do agency work.
The general secretary of the INMO, Liam Doran, has advised members they should not make themselves available for work on the new lower rates of pay.
However, Mr Padden said Mr Doran “should stick to trying to improve job opportunities for nurses and midwives in Ireland rather than coming out with stupid suggestions such as ‘don’t go to work’.”
Mr Doran countered yesterday that agency staff had been put in an impossible situation by the HSE cutting the amount it was prepared to pay nursing agencies. This resulted in nursing agencies cutting rates of pay to nurses by between 10 and 60 per cent.
He said if these lower rates of pay became the norm the likelihood of permanent posts being created for nurses would be diminished because the incentive for the HSE would be to employ all staff through an agency as it would be cheaper.
The agencies could look for more cuts in pay rates next year, Mr Doran said.