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Nurses
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) are now on their 4th day of striking. The work to rule action so far consists of refusal to answer non-essential telephone calls, carry out clerical, administrative or IT duties or to open or close local health centres. The nurses are demanding a 10.6 per cent increase in pay and a 35 hour working week and they say, should the government not respond within 7 days, they will be forced to take further industrial action
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The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) are now on their 4th day of striking. The work to rule action so far consists of refusal to answer non-essential telephone calls, carry out clerical, administrative or IT duties or to open or close local health centres. The nurses are demanding a 10.6 per cent increase in pay and a 35 hour working week and they say, should the government not respond within 7 days, they will be forced to take further industrial action.
The public mind on this seems to be in favour of the nurses. Newspapers and radios have been flooded with letters and calls of support for the nurses. Even many within the inner echelons of our political circles are calling for the government to at least meet the nurses half way. John Gormely of the Green Party has appealled to the government to grant the nurses their 35 hour week before a full strike occurs.
There have been many concerns voiced over the posibility that the nurses may leave their workplaces and strike. Although Liam Doran, General Secretary of the INO says that “essential and emergency care will be provided” in the case of a strike, there are many that are not so sure.
The Government have hugely criticised the nurses for acting “irresponsibly” by giving htem only 49 hours to construct an emergency plan to replace what is one of the countries most important services. They are reluctant to fully meet the demands of the nurses as they feel that other areas of the health services will suffer if money is diverted from them into nurses’ salaries.
However, with only eight weeks to go until the general elections where the health service is one of the key issues, it is most likely that they will be keen to end any disruption on an issue that has so captured the attention of the Irish electorate.
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In other news
The Minister for Health Mary Harney has proposed that tracts of land should be specifically zoned by local authorities for healthcare-related facilities, particularly the provision of residential care centres. She says that this is to encourage health care facilities to be built in inner city areas and also in residential areas. As it stands, proper health care facilities, especially residential ones, are being built on the outskirts of the city due to cheaper land prices there and so, are not accessible for most of the citizens of Dublin.
April 19, 2007 at 6:21 pm
[...] to The Irish Times, the INO and Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) have decided to step up their work-to-rule action by planning work stoppages in facitlities around the country that have not yet been [...]