It will, thankfully, be business as usual in the hospitals of this State this morning. The dreadful prospect of nurses on the picket line with potentially dire consequences for the sick, the elderly and the infirm, has been averted at least for a fortnight. The nurses' unions have voted to defer possible industrial action, pending a national ballot on the Labour Court's £80 million offer. Although nothing should be taken for granted, the signs last night were that the nurses may endorse the new proposals which gives them - not only greatly improved pay and conditions but also the prospect of early retirement at 55 years and, crucially, a commission on the nursing profession.
All of this represents a singular achievement for thousands of ordinary, mostly female nurses, who have Mushed through nothing less than an industrial relations revolution in the nursing profession. Certainly, the Government or the main nursing union, the INO, which grossly underestimated the burning sense of grievance within the profession, deserve little credit this was a battle fought and won by the nurses themselves and one which has always enjoyed considerable public support.
The public has understood the driving force behind this dispute; how the nursing profession has changed beyond recognition in the past quarter century; how the technological and administrative changes have increased the level of responsibility; how nurses have become better qualified and more skilled; and, most of all, how the role of the nurse as an essential part of the health care team has been undervalued and taken for granted. The nurses were deserving of special treatment; they were, as the Labour Court has now acknowledged, a unique case.
There will, inevitably, be some concern that the extra £30 million which has been made available for nurses will produce a rash of relativity claims from other public sector unions with wider implications for government pay policy. But any claim which is based on what the nurses have achieved would reflect very poorly on the public service union concerned. The nurses are a special case deserving of separate consideration, irrespective of whether an election is in the offing, and the wider trade union movement must now acknowledge this.
For its part, the Government will no doubt be relieved that the industrial action has been deferred; the first ever national nurses' strike in an election year would have undermined its authority and deflated the economic feel good factor. There would have been little point in highlighting our economic success if the sick were left without professional nursing care. As it is, another piece of the election jigsaw may have slipped into place.
Should the nurses accept the latest offer, the Government will face the people with a strong industrial relations record. And it is to be hoped that the nurses will accept the package, although both unions and management will have to make a better fist of selling the benefits. But the new terms are sensible and well judged and the commission on nursing provides a belated opportunity to evaluate the role of the nurse within the health service. The perception of nurses had already changed appreciably: the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, pointedly referred on television last night to the "professional nurse"; redefinition is already underway.