The health service is facing potential chaos in the New Year after nurses voted in favour of strike action yesterday.
More than 90 per cent of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation supported a plan to work to rule and hold one-day stoppages in a dispute over staff shortages, recruitment and working conditions.
The INMO issued a statement demanding staffing agreements, educational support and permanent posts for graduates, saying that strike action would lead to bed closures.
Simon Harris, the health minister, called for further negotiations before action at the start of February. He also said that the INMO must stick to the terms of the Lansdowne Road Agreement on public sector pay.
“While I understand that our health service faces serious challenges on recruitment and retention, industrial action is not the solution. It will not reduce the numbers of patients on trolleys in emergency departments, will not reduce the waiting lists or improve service delivery and could lead to the cancellation of elective surgeries,” he said yesterday.
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The planned industrial action comes after the HSE said that it would not have any money available for pay increases in 2017. Liam Doran, the general secretary of the INMO, said that the executive had failed to recognise staffing problems in its newnational plan. The union estimates that there are 3,500 fewer nurses working in the HSE since 2009.
The INMO condemned the HSE and accused it of failing to hire extra staff while at the same time planning to extend services.
Industrial action is not likely to take place before the end of January. It would begin with work-to-rule protest in which nurses would refuse to work beyond hours for which they were rostered or be redeployed to other wards. It could then escalate to one-day stoppages.
The union is requesting talks with the HSE and the government. Mr Harris said that his department was open to negotiating with nurses. “My Department and HSE management and the INMO have had continuing engagement at the Workplace Relations Commission on a number of matters relating to emergency departments over the past year. Management continue to be available to meet the INMO on an ongoing basis,” he said.
He said that industrial action was not the solution to challenges nurses were facing. “The government has reiterated its support for the Lansdowne Road Agreement (LRA) and the collective approach to public service pay issues. The INMO previously confirmed their commitment to the LRA and it is expected that it will continue to do so,” Mr Harris said.
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“It should be noted that commitment to the LRA includes commitment to maintenance of industrial harmony. Therefore the structures available within the LRA including the oversight arrangements should be fully utilised before any recourse to industrial action.”
The HSE launched its national service plan for 2017 on Wednesday. The executive had said that the planned €14 billion spend, which does not include any provision for pay rises, may not be enough to fund the public health service for the year. Tony O’Brien, the director general of the HSE, said that the plan had not budgeted for pay increases because it could not be classed as “other activities” in the budget.
The plan included a recruitment drive which will target emigrant nurses coming back to Ireland for Christmas next week. Walk-in interviews will be offered to those considering coming back to Ireland to work for the HSE on December 28, 29 and 30. A previous campaign aimed at bringing Irish nurses in the UK home succeeded in persuading 88 to do so.
The INMO had criticised the scheme, which was the only mention of staffing and recruitment measures in the plan. “As was the case with previous such initiatives, this will fail in the absence of a realistic, competitive incentive package capable of attracting nurses and midwives into the Irish health service and [without] a working environment which allows all nurses and midwives practice safely,”it said.
The union said that it wanted the health service to consider “financial incentives” to boost recruitment and staff retention. It did not specify any more details of desired pay increases.
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Paschal Donohoe, the public expenditure minister, agreed last month to hold early talks on public sector pay under the Lansdowne Road Agreement. The agreement does not expire until September 2018 and while talks had not been expected until September next year at the earliest, preliminary discussions will now take place in the coming weeks.
The talks will centre on the continued implementation of the current pay deal, maintaining productivity, industrial peace and stability. They are also designed to ensure that issues of mutual concern to the parties are addressed in a “fair and reasonable way”. The government had planned to include nurses’ pay in the discussions.