The "cosy consensus" of social partnership was criticised yesterday when two nursing unions outlined details of an eight-point claim for improved pay and conditions.
The move by the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) to pursue a go-it-alone strategy undermines an already creaking partnership process.
Employers and unions have been unable to get past the first strand in talks on a successor to Sustaining Progress, which were to have been concluded by mid-March.
A major private-sector union, Mandate, which holds its annual conference in Killarney this weekend, has also withdrawn from the process, citing its failure to cater for low-paid workers.
Explaining his union's stance yesterday, INO deputy general secretary Dave Hughes said: "In taking this approach the INO and PNA are rejecting the cosy consensus which suggests that individual unions must bury their members' legitimate complaints in the interests of the overall goal of maintaining industrial peace and stability."
A strike in this instance would be a "last resort", but the resolve of both unions should not be "tested".
Discussions on the two unions' claims, which include a reduction in the working week and a special allowance for Dublin-based nurses, are to take place at the Labour Relations Commission on April 3rd.
However, the Health Service Executive Employers' Agency says it will not negotiate on the claims but will urge that they be channelled through the public service benchmarking body.
It has estimated the cost of the claims, including "knock-on implications" as other workers seek to catch up with any awards made to the nurses, would be €1.67 billion.
At the top of the two unions' agenda is an "anomaly" which sees qualified and unqualified childcare workers paid more than staff nurses and midwives at every point of their respective salary scales.
The Labour Court said in 2004 that the nurses affected felt "very strongly" about this issue, and recommended it receive priority in any new benchmarking exercise.
However, Mr Hughes said yesterday that employers and other unions had decided no group should get priority when the terms of reference for the current benchmarking body were negotiated. This meant the claim was "effectively buried".
The other seven claims being pursued by the two unions are:
- a reduction in the working week from 39 hours to 35;
- parity of pay with therapeutic grades;
- introduction of a Dublin "weighting allowance";
- a review of premium payments;
- an allowance for nurses and midwives responsible for teaching;
- a review of career progression;
- reckonability for superannuation of days lost during the nurses' dispute of 1999.