Minister for Health Simon Harris and Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe after the INMO announced that they have suspended three planned days of strike action this week following an intervention by the Labour Court.

Tonight.

Government Buildings, Dublin 2

Speaking at Government Buildings, Minister [Simon] Harris said the suspension will be welcomed by patients and nurses and midwives alike.

Mr Harris said the nurses did not take the decision to strike lightly, adding that he looked forward to the health service resuming normal work.

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said he will brief Cabinet on the financial impact of the Labour Court recommendation in the morning.

Also speaking at Government’s Buildings, he said that he hopes the recommendations would form the basis for the resolution of the industrial action.

Nursing unions suspend industrial action (RTÉ)

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

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14 thoughts on “Climbdown

  1. Eoin

    As far as I can tell from the patchy details that have emerged so far, the majority of the 40,000 nurses will not be happy with this deal. They were looking for an increase and change to conditions which were costed at €300 million in extra pay for existing staff and €100 million for extra staff, measures which would cost a total of more than €400 million.

    Reducing the agency staff bill of €100 million will be a challenge, and no other country does it. They’ll be lucky if they get it down to €75 million, saving €25 million. Where’s the other €375 million coming from? Answer it seems to me is, very few nurses will see an increase, and certainly nothing anywhere near 12%. The pay increase cited above by RTE only applies to some nurses, and, as I understand it, they need to have four years of continuous service to get it.

    I’m expecting some raised voices when the nurses meet on Wednesday.

  2. Emily Dickinson

    If reports are correct, common sense has prevailed. I suspect behind the scenes ICTU know that a wave of PS strikes on the eve of Brexit would hurt everyone. Hopefully, this resolves the matter, at least for the time being.

  3. Hector Ramirez

    From RTEs reporting it’s says ‘changes to new entrants pay… more specifically, amendments to restoration of pay parity… does this mean it’s a case of throwing new nurses under the bus like the older teachers did to the younger ones?

    Also, the labour court says…employer (Government) will take seriously any similar proposals from other unions… divide and conquer?

    Or am I taking it up all wrong?

  4. octo

    Nurses are paid while they complete their training. Radiographers and other healthcare professionals have to fund their own education.
    Why should they expect pay parity?
    We all work hard.

  5. Eoin

    12 hours later, and this looks like a giant fudge that will not be acceptable to the majority of nurses who froze their behinds off on three days of strikes already.

    Looks like the deal will cost an extra €10-20 million a year. The nurses were looking for €300 million in extra pay and additional nurses which would cost €100 million. The nurses were looking for a headline 12%, looks like this is worth an average of 1%.

    We’ll find out in the next 24 hours as the nurses digest the proposal, they’re not fools.

  6. RobbieC

    Ah they’re very clever.

    The government realised after Saturday’s March that they were losing the public on this. So now they move to offering complicated deals with tiny increments. Already on the comments here, the resounding support for nurses has disappeared, and its turned to comparisons between public servants, even divisions between different nursing categories.

    The government actively tries to control the public like a King controls his mob of peasants. Every time there is a big hullabaloo, we should be looking for the thing they’re distracting us from. Every time the situation looks out of control for them, know that they’re run through this and every scenario and planned for it.. planned for exactly what you’ll see in the media and how they are counting on you reacting to it in a predictable way. This government has more ex-jounalists working for it than any every before.

    Lets get unpredictable.

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