In a move to highlight the growing dispute between senior nurse managers and the HSE, staff at Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe staged another lunchtime protest yesterday (Thursday ).
The protest is the second time in a month that staff have displayed their support for the five INO senior nurse managers who remain out of work.
Staff at the hospital have passed a vote of no confidence in the director of nursing and general manager over the handling of the dispute, which has been onging since September 2008.
At that time, 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.
Irish Nurses Organisation general secretary, Liam Doran, is calling on the HSE to attend Labour Relations Commission talks to resolve the dispute. According to the INO, efforts to enable the managers to return to work have been frustrated by an insistence that they will face disciplinary action if they return to work.
However, the HSE said it had suggested a number of dates to secure a meeting of the Labour Relations Commission, and that the vote of no confidence only represented a fraction of the nursing staff.
