Up to 1,500 nurses from across the State are expected to gather in Dublin today for a mass rally to express their anger at their current pay and conditions.
The nurses, who are members of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), want pay rises and a shorter working week. They also want a special allowance for nurses working in Dublin.
The venue for the rally, which was originally to take place in the Croke Park conference centre, has been switched to the Helix on the campus of Dublin City University.
Dave Hughes, deputy general secretary of the INO, said this was because the Croke Park venue could only hold 800 people and more nurses than that wished to attend.
He said that at the rally, which begins at 3pm, nurses will be calling for the elimination of an anomaly under which qualified and unqualified childcare workers are paid more than staff nurses and midwives.
Nurses have to work for 21 years before being paid the same amount as childcare workers. Over each of the other years, childcare workers earn €2,000 to €3,000 a year more than nurses.
"We are demanding the removal of that anomaly with full retrospective effect to the date from which it commenced. This will involve an increase of 10.6 per cent on all scale points for all nursing and midwifery grades," Mr Hughes said.
Séamus Murphy of the PNA said there was a palpable anger among nurses at this pay anomaly which was not witnessed among nurses since their strike in 1999.
Furthermore, he said nurses were the only grade in the health service required to work 39 hours a week. They are seeking a 35-hour week. Nurses were so angry they were leaving to work abroad, he added. Some 9,000 nurses had left the country over the past few years, he claimed.
The INO and PNA decided to opt out of benchmarking and refer their claims instead to the Labour Court. The Labour Court is due to hear their claim next Tuesday. It is likely to issue a recommendations some time later.
Minister for Health Mary Harney said last month the nurses' pay claim amounted to €1.5 billion, was "not affordable" and "will not be paid".
However, the INO said the Labour Court could not be influenced by statements from the Tánaiste.