Nurses Protest Over Pay

Nurses at several hospitals in Ireland are holding lunchtime protests today to express their dissatisfaction with the current public sector pay dispute. The protests are taking place at hospitals including Cork University Hospital, University Hospital Limerick, and St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said its members will demonstrate over cost-of-living pressures and their impact on staffing levels, ahead of planned work stoppages next Wednesday. INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha rejected Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s suggestion that some public servants wanted industrial action regardless of what the government offered.

Ní Sheaghdha said industrial action could still be avoided, but argued that workers had a right to express their dissatisfaction. She described the Taoiseach’s comments as ‘a little bit glib’ and ‘absolutely inflammatory’. The INMO has already engaged in a work-to-rule, which Ní Sheaghdha said had exposed staffing shortages across the health service.

Most demonstrations will take place between 12.30pm and 1.30pm. The protests come amid a wider public sector pay dispute, with work stoppages planned for 14 October and further strike action scheduled for 21 October. The previous public sector pay agreement expired at the end of June.

The Minister for Public Expenditure, Jack Chambers, announced in Tuesday’s budget that €1.2 billion had been allocated for a public sector pay deal. However, unions said this was not enough to resolve the current pay dispute. Ní Sheaghdha warned that the action had already slowed or curtailed some services, with further disruption expected during next Wednesday’s strike.

Outpatient and day services in particular could be affected, with some appointments postponed. The HSE is expected to inform patients and GPs of the disruption in advance. The INMO has said that services have been slower and curtailed due to the work-to-rule, and that next week’s strike will cause further disruption.

Ní Sheaghdha said that public servants are doing the job of two people most times when they go to work, and that the work-to-rule had exposed staffing shortages across the health service. She said that the Government must listen to the concerns of public servants and take meaningful action to address the pay dispute.

The situation is likely to escalate in the coming days, with further strike action planned. The Government and unions will need to negotiate a resolution to the pay dispute to avoid further disruption to public services.