NURSING unions are to meet the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, tomorrow afternoon to discuss the establishment of a nursing commission. This is one of the main provisions in the Labour Court recommendation aimed at ending the nurses dispute, which threatens to affect 140 hospitals throughout the State.
Nurses are to begin balloting on the Labour Court proposals tomorrow. Yesterday the general secretary of the Irish Nurses Organisation, Mr P.J. Madden, said that when his members meet the Minister they will be "particularly anxious to ascertain whether the commission would address the fundamental issues facing nursing in partnership with the profession".
The union would want to know over what period the commission would operate and what its terms of reference would be, Mr Madden added.
Earlier in the day the assistant general secretary, Ms Leonore Mrwicka, said it would also be import ant that rapid progress was made in the work of the Pensions Commission on early retirement, if the Labour Court proposals were to secure the support of nurses during the ballot.
It is understood that the Pensions Commission has already begun studying the implications of the Labour Court recommendation, although a spokesman yesterday said it had not yet been formally approached on the matter.
The commission has already been asked to look into a dispute over pension entitlements for non nursing grades in the health services. Under the terms of the new national agreement, Partnership 2000, it must report back to the Government on this issue by July.
But it will come under considerable Government pressure to expedite the nurses' case. Government sources said last night that the commission was expected to produce a preliminary report within three months.
Meanwhile, tensions have arisen within the Nursing Alliance because of a decision by the SIPTU nursing council to defer strike action on Saturday, a day ahead of the INO. SIPTU, which represents 7,500 general and psychiatric nurses, effectively put the INO and other nursing unions on, notice that its members would work on Monday, regardless of the decisions they took on Sunday.
The SIPTU stance was criticised at INO meetings around the State. In some hospitals INO members have told SIPTU nurses, that they are no longer prepared to work with them on strike committees, should strike action go ahead.
SIPTU's national nursing official, Mr Noel Dowling, has sent a confidential circular to union activists explaining the union's decision on Saturday. Mr Dowling says in the circular that the decision to meet on Saturday was based on the fact that all four unions in the Nursing Alliance (SIPTU, IMPACT, the INO and Psychiatric Nurses' Association of Ireland) had established Saturday as the day for meetings.
By the time the INO decided it wanted to change the date of its meeting to Sunday, Mr Dowling says "there was no possibility of changing our arrangements, originally agreed with the Alliance. We advised the INO accordingly.
"It is important to appreciate that the Labour Court required each union to separately decide its position on the court's recommendations. And while SIPTU would have preferred the originally agreed arrangements, its meeting went ahead as planned."