Nursing union authorises ballots for industrial action over ‘unsafe staffing’

Officials from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) are to meet with the managements of the country’s acute hospitals to seek assurances regarding their working environments after the union’s Executive Council approved ballots for industrial action in workplaces considered to be unsafe.

The move, which came at a meeting on Friday, follows a month-long consultation process between the union and its members across the country. Its general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, told The Irish Times she now expects the process “to develop quickly” with action “up to and including up the withdrawal of labour” on the table if staff do not receive assurances regarding the improvements they are seeking.

In addition to the individual meetings with the managements of the roughly 30 acute hospitals across the State and the potential for local action, the union says that it is seeking “a fully funded workforce plan for the coming winter” from the HSE and Department of Health. “If this plan is not completed, a national ballot will be considered,” it said.

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said the scale of any action to be taken would ultimately be a matter for the INMO’s executive, which would take on board the views of members expressed. It had been made clear to the union in recent weeks that nurses and midwives did not find the conditions in which they are currently working acceptable, she added.

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“What we’ve said to employers is there’s an expectation that they keep their staff safe. They must have the current staffing numbers to deal with the number of and volume of patients that they’re providing care to, otherwise it’s unsafe.”

She said that the absence of an urgent plan to address the fact that an average of 11 nurses are assaulted each day was both “incredible” and “unacceptable”.

“We know that the staffing numbers are very inadequate and our members are saying simply we won’t put up with this. It’s not going to continue.

“But they have no faith in their employer turning that around of their own volition. They have had a lot of promises but they have no they have no faith in the delivery of those promises. And I suppose a case in point is the pay awards that were awarded to all public servants and which have been paid in every single division except the health division; the October payments won’t be paid until very late in March, we understand. This is a clear breach of that agreement but there’s no consequences.

“So the HSE has, in our view, very little regard for the people they employ. They do not stick to deadlines, they make agreements and they break them and our members are saying that’s not good enough.”

She said talks with a number of individual hospitals have already taken place but declined comment on the content. She said she expects that meetings will take place at the majority of the rest over the coming week and that where adequate assurances are not received, balloting of members could now immediately in light of the executive decision.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said it was “disappointed to hear of potential industrial action by health service unions, which would impact negatively on patients and would be incompatible with the national public service pay agreement Building Momentum”.

The statement went on: “The Department of Health would urge all parties to work on resolving any disputes through the appropriate forums, and to uphold industrial peace in the interests of users of our health and social care services.”