Q&A: Nurses on strike

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) are set to start rolling strikes across Ireland on Wednesday 11 April.

The stoppages are at targeted hospitals and will be for short periods of time.

The unions say that critical care nurses will continue to work.

The BBC news website examines the issues surrounding the strike.

Q: Who exactly is striking?

40,000 members of two nurses unions are taking part. They are the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) representing nurses and midwives, and members of the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA). Nurses who are members of other unions such as UNISON and Impact are not involved in the industrial action.

Q: What is it they want?

The nurses' unions have two demands. They want to work a 35 hour week and a 10% pay increase. They had previously been in talks with the Health Service Executive, the agency charged with the provision of public health care in Ireland. They argue there is currently an anomaly which sees childcare workers paid more than staff nurses and midwives.

Q: How can they justify a pay increase for less hours?

The nurses' unions say that the 35 hour week will bring them into line with other health professionals who have achieved this shorter working week. They also say that the Labour Court recommended this proposal be evaluated over 20 years ago, but that nothing has been done about it to date.

On the pay issue the unions say that nurses should have parity of pay with other therapeutic grades.

Q: What is the HSE's position?

Talks with the HSE broke down without agreement earlier this year. The HSE argue that nurses should agree to abide by an earlier Bench Marking process, as part of a national pay agreement with all public sector workers. The Labour court has also rejected the demands and advocate bench marking as a way to deal with the issue. The HSE say that work stoppages will cause significant disruption to hospital and community based health services.

Q: Why will the nurses not agree to the bench marking recommendations?

The nurses' claims have already been through all the industrial relations mechanisms available. The Labour court urged them to negotiate within the bench marking process which is currently examining pay scales across the public sector. This is due to report later this year.

Q: Are these stoppages the first action taken by the nurses?

No the two nurses' unions voted for industrial action in January. They have been engaged in a work to rule throughout the health service since early April.

Q: What has been the impact of the work to rule action?

There has been a ban on clerical or administrative work and on IT duties. This means patient notes are written up manually but not entered on to a computer system. The nurses are also refusing to undertake telephone work and are not opening or securing community based facilities There has also been a ban on attending meetings at local, regional and national level.

Q: What has the affect been on patients?

The HSE says that in some hospitals the work to rule action has meant operations and out patients clinics have been cancelled. They also say that there has been more pressure on acute front line services, such as accident and emergency departments. There is anecdotal evidence from patients that test results are not been chased up as nurses refuse to use the phone.

Q: What is the government's position?

The Irish minister for health, Mary Harney said the industrial action was unnecessary and would have serious implication for patients and cause unnecessary anxiety for their families. The government to date have shown no sign of giving in to the nurses' demands.

The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern, has insisted that individual demands from public sector workers can not be agreed to as to do so would mean the end of the country's national pay agreement. On a shorter working week the Taoiseach said this would represent a reduction of 7.7 million nursing hours and that could not be undertaken lightly.

Q: Are all hospitals effected by the strikes?

No, the unions have named individual hospitals. The one hour stoppages will begin at 11am on Wednesday April 11th. The hospitals involved are St Vincent's University hospital in Dublin, South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel and the South Tipperary Mental Health services. Other hospitals will be chosen for stoppages on Friday April 13th .