A spokesperson for the local branch of the Irish Nurses Organisation has accused the HSE of “scaremongering” following its warning this week that services would be curtailed and jobs put at risk if industrial action at Portiuncula was to go ahead.
Between 250 and 300 nursing staff, doctors, and supporters from other hospitals turned out at Portiuncula Hospital on Wednesday afternoon to protest in support of the five INO senior nurse managers who remain out of work.
Noreen Muldoon, industrial relations officer for the INO West, explained that the peaceful protest took place during the lunch hour, and that no services were affected or patients left unattended.
“The HSE statement is pure fabrication and scaremongering. They stated that the INO was considering industrial action but we haven’t balloted, and we are one of the few unions who require a two-thirds majority to do this,” she said.
“As far as we are concerned, the HSE could far better spend their energy sitting around the table trying to resolve this dispute. What we want, and what the INO is calling for, is a resolution. We don’t want to have to protest in order to get fair play.”
The dispute at Portiuncula has been ongoing since September 2008, when the five senior nurse managers raised concerns regarding the health and safety of staff and patients, and some of their conditions of employment.
When the matter failed to reach a resolution, two of the nurses were suspended from work with full pay, and all five are currently on stress-related sick leave. According to the INO, “all other efforts to enable these managers return to normal working conditions have been frustrated by an insistence by management that they will face disciplinary action as soon as they go back”.
Ms Muldoon added that: “The five INO nurse manager members involved in this dispute have, at all times, co-operated with all reasonable suggestions to enable their return to their normal working conditions. However, these are being hampered and frustrated by management’s pre-conditions at every juncture.
“INO members, in supporting their colleagues, are adamant that they should be returned to their normal posts without the pre-conditions proposed by management.”
However, in a statement released on Tuesday, the HSE said it has done everything possible to resolve the dispute, but that its efforts had been frustrated by the refusal of the senior nurse managers to engage in a process sanctioned by their union, and by the fact that they had walked off the pitch and stayed off it on full sick pay.
“We hope that even at this late stage, all INO members will think again and stand back from escalating a dispute which puts patients and jobs at risk. Nobody in the health service has, to the best of our knowledge, come across a situation where five such senior nurse managers, engaged in an internal row with their superiors, all went on sick leave,” said an HSE spokesperson.
“This does nothing for the professional reputation of Irish nursing. The bottom line is that everyone is subject to authority and the sooner this is accepted, the better.”
