Nurses seeking reversal of pay cuts and pension levy

Nurses are to seek a full reversal of pay cuts which averaged about 7 per cent as part of forthcoming talks on public service remuneration with the Government. They will also seek the abolition of the pension levy which reduced take-home earnings by a further 7 per cent.

Nurses also want the re-introduction of a 37-hour working week to be on the table for the negotiations between the Government and public service unions which are likely to get underway after Easter.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said its executive council believed it was "pay back time". The executive last week decided to look for "full payback" on the reductions in terms and conditions experienced by members since the onset of the economic crisis.

INMO director of industrial relations Phil Ní Sheaghdha told The Irish Times the Government should be in no doubt that the various cuts were conceded by nurses for a period but this was not forever.

The Government is expected to hold talks with unions representing about 300,000 staff across the public service after Easter on unwinding financial emergency legislation which underpinned controversial measures introduced since 2009 such as the pay cut and the pension levy.

Under the Haddington Road agreement, reached in 2013, nurses have had to work an additional two hours per week without extra pay. It is expected the Government will want to put in place a structure for repealing the various cuts over time and not in one go.

Productivity savings

The abolition of the additional working hours may prove to be highly contentious in the forthcoming negotiations as they generate considerable productivity savings in the health service.

In a statement the INMO said that in considering the issues its executive council “felt it was important to remind members of the Government’s commitment to re-visit the financial emergency measures introduced if the economy recovered. The economy is recovering, which is welcome, and substantial pay improvements are now “evident in industry across the country”.

The INMO executive said it would expect that any outcome of the talks process would “see a return to pre-2009 salaries and working hours that compare with all other professional grades in the public health service”.

The union said that as the Haddington Road deal was due to expire in July 2016, “the executive council is of the view that these talks should commence now, as it is payback time”.

It said the executive also expected the Government to honour its commitments “by applying the same urgency, to this restoration, as they did to the early re-negotiation of the Public Service (Haddington Road) agreement in 2013.

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said: “Put simply, nurses and midwives have contributed massively to the national recovery. They have seen their pay reduced, and their working conditions deteriorate to, in many situations, unsustainable, unmanageable and unsafe levels.”