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Nurses unions say HSE is "bullying" staff into accepting 15 per cent pay cut
The HSE has rejected claims that it will ask existing nurses to apply for their jobs through a graduate programme that pays 85 per cent of the standard wage.
TWO NURSES UNIONS have said that the HSE is trying to “bully” and “strong-arm” nurses and midwives into accepting a 15 per cent pay cut.
Both the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) say that existing nurses on temporary contracts will be forced to re-apply for jobs through a graduate scheme that would pay them 85 per cent of a starting nurses wage.
A memo sent to health service managers said that the HSE would begin recruitment in the coming weeks, but that any staff that were on temporary contracts purely to cover agency staff or overtime hours would have to re-apply for jobs through the graduate scheme.
Graduate nurses and midwives will be paid 85 per cent of a full wage for the first year and 90 per cent in their second.
Both unions insist that the Haddington Road agreement specifically provides that the positions filled under the scheme are in addition to the employment ceiling for the health service and that they cannot be used to replace existing fillable vacancies.
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INMO deputy general secretary Dave Hughes told TheJournal.ie that existing nurses will have “no appetite” to apply for the jobs at a lower rate.
“We didn’t like the Haddington Road Agreement, but we certainly didn’t think that it would be this bad. The agreement is clear that the graduate scheme jobs would not replace existing posts.
“We will be going back to the Labour Relations Commission, who are the custodians of the Haddington Road Agreement, and asking them to implement the agreed practices.
This is a tactic of desperation and is trying to strong-arm young nurses into taking a 15 per cent pay cut.
However, HSE national HR director Barry O’Brien said that the move was needed to “reduce our dependency on agency and overtime workers”.
“If nurses are there to replace overtime and agency staff, they should avail of the graduate programme,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
O’Brien rejected the idea that nurses would be forced onto the graduate scheme, saying “we continue to hire nurses in the usual way”.
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I was under the impression that it is not being downgraded to a fine. If your over 80mg you still have to go to court and charged criminally. Currently if your under 80mg you walk whereas the new law wont let those bearly under off the hook so likely i.e the fine and penalty points. As far as I am aware the fine only applies to first time offence as well, if your caught over 50 a 2nd time you go to court. So in effect the laws are being made stricter ? Correct me if I have this wrong.
is being over the limit classified as being drunk. or is it only a name or level of intoxication when your driving, being labelled drunk carries a negative aspect to having a social drink. I’m all for reduced alcohol blood limits when it comes to driving. just wondering on the naming terms
The problem with this is of course, that it is impossible to ‘know’ if a person is over the limit. The figure could be a lot more. Very few people are actually aware of the quantity of alcohol that would set them over the legal limit. It is more often less that they expect.
No wonder drink related accidents are so high. If in an accident the driver has zero alcohol only the passenger in the back seat is over the limit that accident is classed as being “drink related” if a pedestrian over limit is tipped by a car through his or her own fault it is drink related.
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