IT threatened to be the biggest dispute of the year, and it was only the timely intervention of the Labour Court and a huge cash offer from the Government that kept the Republic's 30,000 nurses off the picket lines last February. No precise figure has been put on the cost of the settlement, but it was certainly in excess of £90 million annually.
Nurses with long service won increases of over 14 per cent, but when other cost factors are taken into account, such as making 2,000 temporary nurses permanent, the overall increase in the nurses' pay bill was probably between 15 per cent and 17.5 per cent. Not surprisingly, delegates to the INO conference in Athlone will be holding a post-mortem on the strike that never was.
There is still a strong feeling that if they had gone on strike they would have won all their demands. As one senior union member put it yesterday: "The jury is still out on the strike for a significant proportion of members."
However, the commission is supposed to address the shortcomings in their settlement. The main issues here are early retirement, the poor career structures in nursing and the allowances for special qualifications.
Although staff nurses, ward sisters and directors of nursing received substantial increases in pay, there were much lower increases for middle-management grades. The employers set out to improve the career structures and pay rates of these grades but, by the time the dispute ended, there was no money left.
Allowances are also exercising the minds of nurses. Now, their specialist qualifications are worth only £300 a year.
They have a long-standing claim for nurses with additional specialist qualifications to receive a 10 per cent premia, which would be worth £2,100 for those at the top of the scale.
Much unrest remains over rates of pay for unsocial hours. Saturday work rates are likely to attract particular criticism. At present, nurses working Saturdays are paid the flat rate, plus a fee of £7.75.
Another issue likely to generate strong feeling is early retirement. At present, the vast majority of general nurses must work to 65, unlike psychiatric nurses, prison officers and gardai, who can retire eight to 10 years earlier. Early retirement seems set to fester into another major dispute unless the Government is seen to act quickly.
The plight of 5,000 retired nurses who have not benefited from the increases won in February is also generating strong feelings among working nurses. The ICTU has already initiated negotiations with the Department of Finance but so far progress has been slow.
Of course, there are plenty of trade unionists who envy the nurses settlement. Last month, 3,500 paramedics in the health services spent almost two weeks on strike to win increases of between 5.5 per cent and 12.5 per cent. They failed to maintain recognition of their pay parity link with nurses. This week, 1,500 laboratory technicians and radiographers are threatening strike action to maintain parity with their nursing colleagues.