The Labour Court will have to arbitrate once more on pay for nurses, following the breakdown of talks yesterday between the Nursing Alliance and the Health Service Employers' Agency (HSEA). Both sides were as far apart on pay rates for the restructured nursing profession after nine hours of intensive talks yesterday as they were when talks began five weeks ago.
The alliance is still seeking increases of up to 40 per cent for promotional grades and management is offering between 1 per cent and 4.9 per cent. This translates into a claim of almost £10,000 a year for senior ward sisters, in their new role as clinical nurse managers, while the HSEA is unwilling to offer more than £1,300.
For some grades of public health and psychiatric nurses, the gap is even greater. No offer at all was made by the employers in response to the Nursing Alliance claim for an 18 per cent increase for long-service staff nurses.
Progress was made on increased allowances for nurses who hold specialist qualifications. These will be increased from the present £328 a year to between £1,000 and £1,500. Job descriptions for the new promotional grade of clinical nurse manager were also agreed, which will make it easier for the Labour Court to "price" the job when it comes to make its recommendation.
However, neither the increased allowances nor the new job descriptions will come into play until a settlement is reached. Last night Mr Liam Doran, chairman of the Nursing Alliance, said the unions were "very disappointed at the lack of progress". This would put "a lot of onus on the Labour Court to come up with a solution. Industrial action is no less likely than when the talks began," he added. But progress in talks on job descriptions had been useful.
Mr Gerard Barry, chief executive of the HSEA, said the only movement on pay came from the management side. The offer of pay rises for promotional grades would cost nearly £8 million. The increases in allowances would cost another £25 million.
Taken in conjunction with the increases paid under the 1997 settlement, Mr Barry said that the total annual wage bill would increase by £120 million in 1999, "a 20 per cent increase in two years".
The chairman of the talks, Mr Francis McCaffrey of the Labour Relations Commission, referred the dispute back to the Labour Court last night due to lack of progress.