The rejection by the State's 27,000 nurses of their pay offer represents another considerable setback for the Government's public pay strategy under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work (PCW) and it underlines the growing mood of industrial militancy across the public service. The nurses, who were originally offered a £10 million pay package, have now rejected a package worth at least £35 million. In so doing, a group not known for its militancy, has rejected the advice of three of the four nursing unions which recommended acceptance.
The parallels with the teachers, who turned down a much better £67 million pay package, are striking in both cases the respective trade unions are vulnerable to the charge that they failed to adequately reflect the grievances of their members and failed to sell the offer to those they represent.
The Government now faces a dilemma as it attempts to hold the line on public service pay further concessions to the nurses could unleash fresh claims from other public service unions, while any hint of obduracy may provoke industrial action. In many respects, the Government has only itself to blame: it grossly underestimated the mood of militancy among a profession that believes, with some legitimacy, that its very valuable contribution to society has been undervalued and taken for granted. It assumed that the nurses would accept what was on offer and allowed the negotiations to drag on interminably. And, at a delicate stage in negotiations, it concluded a much more generous package with the teachers which must have added to the nurses sense of frustration.
rate of frustration.
That said, the offer has its merits, the top pay for most nurses is set to increase appreciably, management has agreed to make 1,200 temporary nurses permanent and an early retirement package is available to several hundred nurses aged over 57. But there is a definite sense that the offer was too little and too late: the reality is that nurses' pay levels have slipped significantly compared to those of groups like teachers and health service administrators. Far from placating the nurses, the offer has added to their sense of grievance with its low differential for nursing supervisors, its lack of reward for extra qualifications and the proposal to cut pay for new entrants. To make matters worse, the package provides little immediate benefit for most nurses since the increases in pay were to be paid in two long service increments.
It is also clear that the nurses share the general exasperation about the tax and PRSI burden. other sections of the community, the nurses were will to tighten their belts when times were hard. But at a time when the economy is outperforming most of our EU partners, the nurses, like teachers and civil servants, expect to enjoy a much higher level of disposable income. It is becoming obvious that the Government missed an opportunity to mollify the hard pressed PAYE sector in the last Budget. But a signal that it is now ready to embark on a programme of real tax reform, in which all sectors of the community share the tax burden, might help to avert further industrial conflict across the public sector.