Minister vows to end strikes with pay deal

Minister vows to end strikes with pay deal

15 January 2020

HEALTH staff across the district were yesterday digesting the news that new Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann had confirmed that pay parity with their colleagues in England can now be restored.

He told the Assembly that it would cost an extra £30m that would come from within existing Stormont finances.

Mr Swann met with representatives from a number of leading health trade unions to brief them on the decision, describing the talks as “constructive”. 

The new man in charge of the Province’s health portfolio said the “breakthrough that we all wanted has been achieved; this is 

a good day after some very difficult days.”

Mr Swann announced that the Department of Health had already gathered together £79m to increase pay for health workers, with an extra £30m being pulled from existing finances at Stormont.

His decision to address the pay issue came after a series of strikes involving staff across the health and social services sector over pay and staffing levels.

Nurses and other health workers in Northern Ireland have been taking industrial action over pay and staffing levels, with Mr Swann confirming that his officials would work with the unions on the issue of safe staffing levels in the health service and hopes a plan can be drawn up to establish such levels “within a reasonable period of time”.

Today, representatives from trade unions representing nurses and all health and social services staff will meet with Department of Health officials, with Mr Swann hoping for a “swift end” to their industrial action.

He added: “Our nurses and great social care workers can come off the picket-line”.

Prior to yesterday’s announcement, local nurses said that they hoped that the return of Stormont would pave the way for the pay parity and staffing issues to be finally addressed.

Ahead of yesterday’s meeting, the RCN said while welcoming the restoration of the Stormont administration, nurses had been made many promises.

The RCN’s Northern Ireland Director, Pat Cullen, said nurses wanted to see those promises converted into action.

Last Wednesday and Friday, nurses based at the Downpatrick hospitals took part in the latest round of stoppages and were buoyed by the support of passing motorists and others as they manned the picket-line at the entrance to the Downshire Civic Centre.

Braving bitterly cold conditions last Friday morning, nurses were hoping for positive news from Stormont, hours after Secretary of State Julian Smith and Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney had published the New Decade New Approach document.

Nurses, who had sacrificed another day’s pay, were joined at one stage on the picket-line by South Eastern Trust interim chief executive Seamus McGoran and Roisin Coulter, the organisation’s director of planning.

Nurses said that they hoped that the political parties would go back into government and that their demands for pay parity and safe staffing levels would be met.

“We believe that the collective pressure of health service staff has ensured that politicians know that they must get back to Stormont,” said nurse Irene Murray.

“We do not want to be used as political pawns and hope that there is cross-party agreement for politicians to get back to work. While pay parity and safe services are key issues for us, the key thing is that there are enough recurrent resources in place to deliver this now and in the future.”

Irene said the RCN is about putting patients first, describing the scale of the hospital waiting list issue as “unacceptable”.

She added: “Employing more nurses can help bring waiting lists down. This is not a new phenomena. It is tough to work as a nurse and it is not an easy job. But we currently have a situation where some nurses are taking on extra shifts to earn more money, but that is just an unacceptable way to live.”

Alison Megarry said patients are nurses’ primary concern and at the heart of what they do, highlighting the need to keep staff working in Northern Ireland to ensure they don’t go across the water and don’t come back. 

She revealed that she was talking to a nursing sister last week who was working on international recruitment for nurses in Mumbai to work in Northern Ireland. 

“The nurses in India said why would they come here when the pay is less than it is in England, Scotland and Wales. I believe that if we can keep our nurses here, it will help to tackle the waiting list issue,” she said. “The big issue we have is that the population is ageing and people are living longer which therefore impacts on waiting lists.”

Nurse Sonia McCoubrey said that while pay parity is one issue, additional nurses are also required. She said many newly qualified nurses are choosing to go to England, Scotland or Wales because the money is better. 

She also said she worries about the safety of newly qualified nurses managing difficult situations and the patients they are caring for.

“You have trolley waits and people lying in corridors. There is no privacy, no dignity and the situation is appalling. You go home at night after a shift burnt out and worried about what you have seen,” the nurse added.

Nurse Donna Boyd also expressed concern about waiting lists and said she fears that the situation is going to get worse, forcing many people to go private.

“If more money is put into the system nurses are quite happy to do even more to help reduce waiting lists. All nurses go and above what is required of them when they are working, often staying after their scheduled quitting time which is unpaid work,” she said.

“With more people going private because of lengthy waiting lists, a lot of the doctors and consultants are taking on private lists which then impacts on the NHS list. I have friends who were nurses who have left the profession to work in supermarkets because they have burnt themselves out. They can’t cope with the demands being made on them,” she added.