Nurses Strike

[anto1208]

INO pay rates

22,901 for student nurse in 2006. Staff nurses starts at 27k+

Apprentices rarely get paid much in any job.

AFAIK the nurse unions ate looking for 20% pay increase across all grades which is why i use averages. If its just 205 increase for lowest paid then they should state that & I will use the figures for lowest paid then.

As hospital employees nurses are surely as responsible as anyone for the high rate of infections? It can't be just the doctors fault can it?

So pete if the guy next to you in work works a 35 hour week while you work a 40 hour week , he gets paid 30K and you get 27 you wouldnt ask for a rise and/or a reduction in hours ????

[Clifford]

Sure I attend to the other patients in the room far more than any of the staff

Be careful - they'll get you a job on shocking pay and slave like hours if your not careful

[pete]

So pete if the guy next to you in work works a 35 hour week while you work a 40 hour week , he gets paid 30K and you get 27 you wouldnt ask for a rise and/or a reduction in hours ????

Apologies but I got a bit confused with the posts below but in your example 27k is the nurse & 30k is ???

Have you not heard the parable of the Prodigal son?

I would realise that threatening to strike unless I get 20% (all or nothing) would have little chance of progression. Even if the 20% claim is justified the nurses unions have backed themselves into a corner that any negotiation is a defeat.

I am sure loads of people deserve to be paid more but the fact is the unions signed up to benchmarking & the independent Labour Court said their pay claims should be settled into it. IMO the nurses should sit down to negotiate the reduction in hours which the HSE has offered & pursue the pay increase via benchmarking - it was meant to link pay grades which seems to be the core of the dispute?

[anto1208]

Apologies but I got a bit confused with the posts below but in your example 27k is the nurse & 30k is ???

Have you not heard the parable of the Prodigal son?

I would realise that threatening to strike unless I get 20% (all or nothing) would have little chance of progression. Even if the 20% claim is justified the nurses unions have backed themselves into a corner that any negotiation is a defeat.

I am sure loads of people deserve to be paid more but the fact is the unions signed up to benchmarking & the independent Labour Court said their pay claims should be settled into it. IMO the nurses should sit down to negotiate the reduction in hours which the HSE has offered & pursue the pay increase via benchmarking - it was meant to link pay grades which seems to be the core of the dispute?

They have been asking for a sit down since 1980 but are continually ignored because the goverment know thye wont let down there patients they have been backed into a corner for 27 years and all they ask for fair and equal working conditions .

Here is there list of what there "strike" means they wont be doing .

*Clinical/admin duties; nursing notes will be maintained manually;( admins job )

*Attend meetings, except those involving consideration of named individual patients, their welfare and case management;

*Telephone work, except calls deemed essential on clinical grounds;( admins job )

*Open or secure all community-based buildings and facilities.( securties job )


As you see it doesnt mean an awfull lot if security and admin staff did the jobs they are paid to do there would be no dissrution at all .


Look you started saying that 70 % work 39 hour weeks ive shown you thats wrong
You said nurses start on 31K ive shown you thats wrong
now im not blaming you you went to a official goverment source your only mistake was not realising the figure would be twisted to suit. ( ie the 39 jours just dont add up as my previous post and the 31K doesnt take into mention that they have to work nights and sundays to bump up there pay to 31K )

All they want is to work the same hours as every one else and get the same pay as everyone else ( care assistants recently got a 27% rise !!! )

[Ringo]

[QUOTE]

You went to Mary Harney for your facts

http://www.ino.ie/DesktopModules/art...%2020Jun06.doc

you went to the INO

you'll note the Departments figures are current , your notes from the INO are nearly a year old. Why hasn't the INO refuted the departments claims?

[pete]

They have been asking for a sit down since 1980 but are continually ignored because the goverment know thye wont let down there patients they have been backed into a corner for 27 years and all they ask for fair and equal working conditions .

The list of pay increases gained in during the sham that benchmarking is would seem to contradict this.

If the nurses get 10% pay increase then the teachers will be next in line & so on. The state is already employing too many civil servants (more public sector than private sector jobs created in recent years) so soon will be back to bad days of the 1970s.

I have a good friend who worked in a semi state body for a while & has since left. I now believe that it has poisoned his view of work as he has recently told me story of work demarcation in current private sector job. All this talk of "thanks admins job" reminds me of that antiquated way of thinking.

For what its worth the nurses seem entitled to discussion on work hours but pay increase in completely invalid as they just linked themselves to other Health service jobs to suit their case. No one has answered why benchmarking (that body is full of civil servants) has disagreed with these claims.

[Student Mullet]

Non Consultant Hospital Doctors, according to the Irish Medical Organisation, work a 39 hour week ...inclusive of a paid one hour lunch break.

They [Gardas] are officially recorded as working a 39 hour week. ... and each eight hour shift is inclusive of a 45 minute lunch break.

Presumably the nurses also take lunch breaks? Am I missing something or is the INO subtracting lunch breaks from the comparisons with doctors and gardas and whomever but not from their own hours?

[anto1208]

Presumably the nurses also take lunch breaks? Am I missing something or is the INO subtracting lunch breaks from the comparisons with doctors and gardas and whomever but not from their own hours?

Nurses dont get paid for there lunch breaks so if you work 8 to 8 you only get clocked in for 11 hours .

[pete]

Nurses dont get paid for there lunch breaks so if you work 8 to 8 you only get clocked in for 11 hours .

Welcome to the rest of the planet. The problem here seems to be that other workers are getting paid for eating and drinking. I think need to work to remove that from other workers. Nice to see where my tax euros going...

[Student Mullet]

Nurses dont get paid for there lunch breaks so if you work 8 to 8 you only get clocked in for 11 hours .

Thanks,
I would have thought most nurses were on a salary rather than an hourly rate but I'm probably just wrong.

[soccerc]

Here is there list of what there "strike" means they wont be doing .

*Clinical/admin duties; nursing notes will be maintained manually;( admins job )

*Attend meetings, except those involving consideration of named individual patients, their welfare and case management;

*Telephone work, except calls deemed essential on clinical grounds;( admins job )

*Open or secure all community-based buildings and facilities.( securties job )


As you see it doesnt mean an awfull lot if security and admin staff did the jobs they are paid to do there would be no dissrution at all .

As someone who has closely observed the health service intimately for the past 3 years can I say you are talking ******.


Nursing notes* must be manually recorded, always have and a move to computer based records would cause huge difficulties under Data Protection Act.

* nursing notes would be better described as a two hour doss at start and end of shift. Since when are nursing notes an admin responsibility?


Meetings are normally as part of multi disciplinary team work - who is supposed to know the patient best? The Nurse!

As it stands I am now on my way back to an A&E dept due to an relapse of the person concerned.

[Dodge]

Welcome to the rest of the planet. The problem here seems to be that other workers are getting paid for eating and drinking. I think need to work to remove that from other workers. Nice to see where my tax euros going...

Must be paying tax pete if you're paying civil servants and nurses....

[anto1208]

As someone who has closely observed the health service intimately for the past 3 years can I say you are talking ******.


Nursing notes* must be manually recorded, always have and a move to computer based records would cause huge difficulties under Data Protection Act.

* nursing notes would be better described as a two hour doss at start and end of shift. Since when are nursing notes an admin responsibility?


Meetings are normally as part of multi disciplinary team work - who is supposed to know the patient best? The Nurse!

As it stands I am now on my way back to an A&E dept due to an relapse of the person concerned.

No it says they wont do Clinical/admin duties then there is a coma and then it says nurses notes WILL be maintained .


What a doss Id love after 12 hours on my feet to have to stay behind for an extra 2 hours writting up reports , What a life up at 6 30 work 8 to 8 then write reports till 10 ... but after that you have the rest of the day to yourself .

They do know the patients best thats why it says wont attend meetings EXCEPT the meetings concerning patients .

BTW i didnt write those demands they are from the INO website dont see how i can be blamed for talking ****e .

Sorry to hear about the relapse but wouldnt you prefer the nurses to be looking after your friend rather than answering phones , opening buildings , cleaning toilets or sitting in pointless meetings ?

[Clifford]

What a doss Id love after 12 hours on my feet to have to stay behind for an extra 2 hours writting up reports , What a life up at 6 30 work 8 to 8 then write reports till 10 ... but after that you have the rest of the day to yourself .

Thats exactly what it amounts to and why my wife left the slave labour behind and now works 9-5 in a health centre with reps bringing them out to dinner almost one day a week. The change in her own health was noticable within a week. I feel for anyone left behind to be bullied, abused and trod on - and that's only by patients and their relatives - I wouldn't even try to picture what the management do to them.

[anto1208]

Thats exactly what it amounts to and why my wife left the slave labour behind and now works 9-5 in a health centre with reps bringing them out to dinner almost one day a week. The change in her own health was noticable within a week. I feel for anyone left behind to be bullied, abused and trod on - and that's only by patients and their relatives - I wouldn't even try to picture what the management do to them.

I read some where it costs 85,000 euro per year ( 4 year course 340,000euro) to train a nurse and in the last few years 9,000 irish nurses have left the country or the proffesion , then the goverment spends million s bringing in 13,000 nurses from outside the country

at a rough guess thats 3060 million euro wasted on training nurses that leave and i presume importing the 13,000 costs something similar . Wouldnt it just make sence to treat them properly and keep the nurses in the country .

A friend of mine is just about qualified with in the next few weeks but she is all ready planning on getting out of general nursing . After being worked into the ground , attacked by patients and family ( actually punched by a so called man ) she has had enough and she isnt even qualified yet

[John83]

What a doss Id love after 12 hours on my feet to have to stay behind for an extra 2 hours writting up reports , What a life up at 6 30 work 8 to 8 then write reports till 10 ... but after that you have the rest of the day to yourself .

For three days a week, that's pretty handy.

[Ringo]

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/?...USNCW&rss=rss1


here we go everyone will be at it now & we the tax payers will have to foot the bill. The teachers, guards etc will want what the nurses get.

[pete]

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/?...USNCW&rss=rss1

here we go everyone will be at it now & we the tax payers will have to foot the bill. The teachers, guards etc will want what the nurses get.

Examples of people leaving nursing here are examples of personal choices. Some of the talk here makes it sound like nurses work in mineshafts.

If I was employed in the public sector I would also support the nurses as I would realise makes my case for pay increase better. Unfortunately its the private sector workers who will end up with pay increases to fund all these claims.

Interesting that not heard nurse unions requesting more funding of hospital facilities instead of pay rise.

[MyTown]

Great Thread Lads.

Out of every €1 spent in the HSE between 70 and 80 cent goes on wages and salaries. The biggest wage expenditure is in the area of nursing.

Is Liam Doran the real CEO of the HSE? So it seems given his propensity to CLAIM the moral high ground on everything.

So a few quick questions for Liam and his supporters

1.How much is ABSENTEEISM amongst nurses costing the HSE (i.e. the taxpayers of this country) every year?

2.For every nurse who is ON DUTY, how many nurses are on full pay but on

sick leave
annual leave
compassionate leave
parental leave
flexible working
course days
study days
concession days
term time

and on it goes.

How many members use/abuse their "entitlement" to the maximum number of uncertified sick days in a year?

3. For every nurse who agrees a contract to work a 24/7 ROSTER, how many actually work night duty?

4. Does the INO / PNA accept that one of the reasons nurse morale is so low is that BULLYING is endemic in the profession i.e. BY NURSES TO NURSES?

5. Does the INO/PNA place any creedance in the views of the World Health Organisation that stress the need for nurses to spend much more of their practice IN THE COMMUNITY at PRIMARY CARE level, rather than in Acute Hospital settings? Accepting this would mean a huge saving to the HSE in reduced overtime payments to nurses for weekend and night duty, but I somehow doubt the nurses would give this up, even 'though 24/7 has become a huge part of many peoples working lives now, many of whom don't get bonus payments for "unsocial" shifts.

I believe the public is in thrall to the nurses, because when those we love are sick we will be grateful for any kindness or support given to us.

Many of you have posted your support for the nurses above and have given instances of where you sat at the bedside of loved ones, so can I ask, if THE SAME NURSE did two consecutive shifts while you were there? My point is there is NO CONTINUITY of care for those who are sick in hospital.

It's very fashionable to bash the religious orders in this country now, but from my recollection, when the nuns were in charge of hospitals, they were clean and infection free. Now under a nurse manager structure infection is rampant and from my observations nurses come and go off the wards as they please in uniform.

I recently sat at a relatives bedside, close to the nurses station. The "quality" of care was very poor. Lots of flicking through magazines, arranging the next night out, recommending shopping spots and commenting on patients relatives, but only very rare visits to the patients bedside.

Since their last industrial action and the Commission on Nursing, they are very quick to brandish their professional credentials, but not so quick to honour their responsibilities IMO.

Most of this post is unashamedly against the nurses arguments in this dispute. In the interests of balance, I want to state I have been lucky enough to come across some brilliant professionals who have given excellent care and go beyond and above the call of duty. They deserve any concessions Liam Doran and Des Kavanagh get for them. My problem is a huge number of lazy opportunists will also benefit from the nursing gravy train which looks set to run and run.

Maybe that’s true of all “professions”?

[Clifford]

Good post My Town, the govt has ruined the health system and don't know how to fix it. As mentioned some time last week all the above topics are indeed rife in the nursing system here, until the training and management are tightened up there will continue to be people who abuse it as you rightly state. It is also a reason why the good nurses are leaving as I stated earlier in this thread. This current strike in the eyes of most honest nurses is just the straw that broke the camels back. As I stated before my missus wouldn't have had any probs with the money or hours.

Examples of people leaving nursing here are examples of personal choices. Some of the talk here makes it sound like nurses work in mineshafts.

Not even close, the mineshafts were mild in comparisson at times. You don't have to accept it, I'm giving my wife's experiences, she left before she was beaten or bullied out of it like many before her. No word of a lie, no exaggeration. She used come home from work and pass out, physically sick most of the time. I accept she was one of the "honest" ones, cut out for the vocation from the age of 12, but it's not acceptable. In England where she nursed it was a treat in the much maligned NHS.