Nursing Alliance leaders face a tough battle in persuading their members to accept the latest Labour Court proposals aimed at ending the nine-day-old nursing strike.
As the strike was deferred yesterday pending a ballot, union leaders said they were confident that their members would accept the deal. They said they believed that once members read the full details of the package, which more than doubles the promotional posts for staff nurses, they would realise it was the best deal that could be reached in the present circumstances.
Balloting on the proposed deal is due to begin immediately.
It could be next Monday before normal services resume in many major acute hospitals, although accident and emergency departments are expected to provide a full service by tomorrow.
As a result of the nine-day strike, 70,000 out-patient admissions and 9,000 elective admissions were postponed, according to the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association.
Smaller hospitals are expected to return to full capacity first, as evidenced by the North Western Health Board's appeal last night for people with outpatient appointments for today or tomorrow to keep those appointments.
The Nursing Alliance suspended the strike after the Labour Court award was handed down yesterday by the chairman, Mr Finbarr Flood. The main points in the recommendation include:
2,500 new senior staff nurse positions to be created;
1,100 clinical nurse managers to be appointed;
1,250 clinical nurse specialists;
Allowances worth £1,000 to £1,500 a year to be given to public health, psychiatric and mental health nurses.
The chairman of the Nursing Alliance, Mr Liam Doran, described the strike as "a watershed in nursing", but he accepted that it would take time to explain the details to members.
The headquarters of his own union, the Irish Nurses' Organisation - which represents the bulk of the nurses - was inundated with faxes from strike committees calling for pickets to continue while balloting took place. Some nurses on the picket lines even wanted an all-out strike last night, but others adopted a more positive stance.
SIPTU's national nursing official, Mr Oliver McDonagh, described discussions with his executive as very intense. He said some nurses were saying they would reject the offer before they had time to study the details. He said members must realise the award provided a major advance for psychiatric and mental handicap nurses, as well as general nurses.
IMPACT national officer Mr Kevin Callinan said, "We've made a major breakthrough on long-service recognition". Nurses would no longer have to retire on the basic grade.
The Psychiatric Nurses' Association general secretary, Mr Des Kavanagh, said nurses "as a workforce will be taken a lot more seriously in future" because of their strike action.
However, the president of the Association of Irish Nurse Managers, Ms Mary Courtney, matron of Portiuncula hospital in Ballinasloe, said a "strike is a very crude instrument, which must never be used again in nursing".
Nurses had been generous in providing free emergency staffing and other healthcare staff had "kept the services going for patients in very difficult circumstances". However, the "confidence that people need in colleagues will require time to be established again".
The ballot votes will be counted on November 5th. On that day, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is holding a special delegate conference on a successor to Partnership 2000. Last night ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, said that a new system for rewarding public-service workers for co-operation with change "without knock-on demands is an urgent priority".