Threatened industrial action by nurses has been called off following an agreement on payment for overtime.
One of the two unions involved, the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO), is to go to the Labour Court to seek an investigation into its claim for full incremental credit for all temporary nurses.
SIPTU's official, Mr Oliver McDonagh, said his union would be looking at the full overtime package, as well as the issue of incremental credit at a meeting with the Nurses' Council. Industrial action has been called off, he said. SIPTU has been holding separate negotiations for its nursing members.
The INO general secretary, Mr Liam Doran, said that following three hours of negotiations under the chairmanship of the Labour Relations Commission, the INO had deferred its proposed overtime ban and work to rule pending a Labour Court investigation into incremental credit.
The crisis in nursing centres on the shortage of staff nurses around the State. The effect has been to cut the number of beds available. In Dublin alone, this is 300 beds, the equivalent of half a hospital.
The question of overtime led to the threat of industrial action. Nurses traditionally take time off in lieu of overtime payment but staff shortages have meant few nurses are able to take time off.
Nurses in SIPTU have already taken action in the Southern Health Board area and won a concession for overtime payment. The Cork agreement is essentially what has been offered nationally.
The president of the INO, Ms Anne Cody, said: "We welcome the introduction of a national overtime rate and the relaxation of existing rules with regard to incremental credit and permanent part-time working. However, the INO will be putting forward substantial evidence to the Labour Court which we believe shows a very strong argument for full incremental credit for temporary staff and we are confident of a positive outcome to the forthcoming investigations."
The 200 members of the Association of Irish Nursing Managers said they were concerned at the Government's handling of the pay differential issue for nurses.
Nurses should not have to rely on working anti-social hours to increase their salary and the fact they had to do so was discouraging people from entering the profession and from putting themselves forward for promotion.
The association's president, Ms Mary Courtney, said: "The shortage of nurses in the Dublin area alone is already over 700 and this figure will continue to increase, unless we make nursing attractive to people. Pay is one way of doing this. The working week for nurses also needs to be reduced," she said.
There were continuing problems in finding nurses for short-term temporary contracts, such as the relief of nurses on maternity leave. No one wants a temporary post because the conditions are so poor, she said.