The Nursing Alliance is to organise a march of its 27,000 members on Leinster House in the event of rejection of the £100 million Labour Court award. The decision is characteristic of the high-risk strategy the alliance has adopted throughout the dispute.
The result of the nurses' ballot will not be known until next Wednesday. If, as expected, there is an overwhelming rejection, then a strike ballot would be held and strike notice would be served on the Government for Tuesday, October 19th, a day later than was originally planned.
The march on Leinster House would take place on Thursday, October 21st. The unions would be urging all members not required for emergency cover in hospitals, or for picket duty, to attend the rally.
The chairman of the alliance, Mr Liam Doran, said yesterday that the first priority if members rejected the award would be to seek meetings with health managers to try to agree emergency cover during the dispute.
There have been no initiatives for meetings from the management side while the outcome of the ballot is awaited. The dispute was discussed, along with other claims pending in the public service, at an Irish Congress of Trade Unions meeting yesterday. Other unions are understood to have outlined their own positions on the dispute, including the likelihood of "catch-up" claims across a wide spectrum of the public service.
Members of ICTU's public service committee also discussed proposals contained in a Government report for restructuring pay negotiations. It was decided to defer taking any position on the contents of the document until further consultation with the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Finance.
Leaders of other public service unions are awaiting developments in the nursing dispute before deciding their own strategies on pay.
The Labour Court is to contact Dublin Bus management and the unions representing the company's drivers today to see if next Monday's strike can be averted.
The unions are seeking a comprehensive pay review in pursuit of a 20 claim, which the company says breaches Partnership 2000. Both sides said last night that they would be available, if required, for further talks.
The threat of disruption to the DART services on Monday also seems to be receding. Although the company had indicated earlier this week that it would be introducing trainee drivers, it now appears to have deferred doing so yet again. SIPTU and NBRU officials said yesterday that there would be no industrial action unless the company introduced the trainees unilaterally.
With talks on a viability plan due to begin for DART drivers on September 27th, it now appears that negotiations on trainee drivers may become subsumed in that process.