Nurses vote to accept Labour Court package

ALMOST 700 nurses at Sligo General Hospital have voted by a wide margin in favour of Labour Court recommendations aimed at averting further industrial action over staffing levels at the hospital.

Last month nurses staged a one-day strike at the hospital and threatened to escalate their action if  the staffing issue was not resolved.

But while 95 per cent of Siptu members voted for the recommendations, the  union’s local health services organiser Padraig Peyton  warned  that management must implement   the Labour Court package “in its entirety”. “Any changes must be negotiated,” he stressed.

It is understood that management at the hospital will meet with union leaders later this week. The court has recommended that an independent expert review staffing and that no more temporary contracts are terminated until that review has been completed.

Over 90 per cent of INO members at the hospital voted in favour of the Labour Court package which included a recommendation that 19 temporary staff  who were recently let go, be re-employed by the HSE at other locations.

INO industrial relations officer Noreen Muldoon said the union was hopeful that the independent review would establish staffing requirements at the hospital.

“Our members are committed to achieving the best possible care for patients attending the hospital,” she said.  “The nursing service in Sligo is being provided solely with the goodwill and flexibility of nurses working under severe and increasing pressure.”

Union members had insisted that staffing levels on some wards were dangerously low following the lay-off of 19 temporary staff.

The HSE branded last month’s one-day strike as “reckless”. A spokeswoman for the hospital said yesterday that management had not been informed of the result of the ballot and had no comment to make.