The last of the four nurses' unions to consider the current pay, offer has decided not to recommend the deal to its members. The Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland (PNAI), which represents 3,040 of the State's 26,000 nurses, said that it was concerned about discrepancies between pay scales.
The £35 million package, negotiated last month, will go to a ballot in less than two weeks. It has been accepted by the three other nursing unions in the alliance IMPACT, SIPTU and the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO).
The general secretary of the PNAI, Mr Des Kavanagh, pointed out that the pay differences between staff nurses and nursing officers [ward sisters] would not be eliminated until the year 2000. New staff nurses would be employed at a higher salary than existing nursing officers until the salary deal had been phased in over a number of years.