Unions representing about 40,000 nurses will have their first meeting today with the benchmarking body which is examining pay rates in the public service.
Today's meeting between the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO), the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA), health service management and the benchmarking body is expected to be procedural in nature and deal with issues such as timetables for the receipt of submissions.
The two nursing unions agreed to take their case for a 10.6 per cent pay increase to the benchmarking body as part of the settlement of their recent seven-week dispute with health service management.
Under this deal the nursing unions and health service management will make a joint submission to the benchmarking body, setting out the scope and potential for the expanded role of nurses and midwives.
The National Implementation Body, which brokered the deal, acknowledged that this changed and expanded role would deliver significant added value to the health service.
The benchmarking body has already started work on considering claims made by other public sector groups. It is expected to report later in the year.
The INO had previously said that it had no faith in the terms of reference for the current benchmarking body.
It said that these were virtually identical to those of the previous benchmarking exercise five years ago, which had left its members extremely disillusioned.
Under benchmarking, the various public service groups, such as civil servants, teachers and gardaí, make submissions to an independent body that assesses their case, compares it with pay scales in the private sector and sets out awards for each.
In the last benchmarking exercise the main body of nurses was awarded increases of 8 per cent, just below the overall average.
However, other groups such as the therapeutic grades in the health sector - occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and the like - did better and received about 12 per cent. The INO wanted to discover the basis on which the therapeutic grade staff received higher increases, but this was never provided due to the conditions of secrecy that surrounded the body.
As part of the overall settlement of the recent dispute, nurses will see their working week reduced to 37.5 hours from June of next year.
A commission is also to be established to examine how and when the health service can move towards a 35-hour week for nurses.
