The nursing unions have decided to make a joint submission when they attend the Labour Court on October 28th to discuss their longstanding pay claim against the Government. The court invited the unions and Government to a hearing after the Government announced 10 days ago that it was willing to attend the court, if requested. The Government said initially it intended referring the claim to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which would have breached the terms of an agreement reached with the unions in February 1997, just 14 hours before a national strike was due to begin.
The Nursing Alliance took the decision to make a joint submission to the court at a meeting in the headquarters of the largest union, the Irish Nurses' Organisation, yesterday. The other three unions involved are SIPTU, IMPACT and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association.
The INO executive is meeting to review its own stance in the dispute today. It is expected to hold to an earlier decision to call a special delegate conference on October 27th, the day before the Labour Court hearing. This conference will consider motions to sanction a national strike.
The argument will be that to defer the conference would send the wrong message to the Government ahead of negotiations. It would also mean delays in calling a strike, should the intervention of the Labour Court prove unsuccessful, or should the Government refuse to accept its recommendations.
The Labour Court is only hearing submissions on whether nurses should receive increased allowances for holding additional clinical qualifications. It is probably the easiest of the outstanding claims to resolve.
The other two issues of new grading structures for nurses and long-service increments are due to be referred to the Labour Relations Commission shortly. If not resolved there, they are likely to be referred to the court as well.