Student nurses are threatening to strike next month over plans to introduce “savage” pay cuts which they say will amount to them working for “slave” wages.
The fourth year pre-registration nurses, members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Union, announced earlier this week they will begin their action campaign, which includes lunchtime protests, a march and rally and work stoppages, in March unless the Government reverses a proposal to axe interns’ pay by 2015.
Fourth year student nurses are paid 80 per cent of the minimum staff nurse scale during this nine-month internship which forms part of their four-year degree programme. They are required to work a full roster including 12 hour days, night duty and weekend shift patterns.
However, the Department of Health announced before Christmas that it is to reduce their pay to 76 per cent of the minimum staff nurse rate this year. Their salary will be gradually cut over the next four years until it is just 40 per cent of the staff rate in 2014 before abolishing all payments in 2015.
Noreen Muldoon, the INMO’s industrial relations officer in the west, says her union views this “savage” cut as imposing “slave labour” and will fight to reverse its implementation.
The campaign, which is fully supported by other unions representing nurses, will involve nurses from the four year undergraduate programme taking part in a lunchtime protest at 13 hospitals around the country, including University Hospital Galway on Wednesday from 12.30pm to 1.30pm. A protest march and rally will take place in Dublin on February 16. If the issue is not resolved the union will ballot fourth year nurses/midwives for a withdrawal of labour with industrial action commencing in early March.
“The INMO is angered and disgusted by this unilateral decision to cut the pay of working pre-registration nurses and midwives and it is totally unacceptable to the organisation,” insists Ms Muldoon.“This proposal devalues, to the level of slave labour, the nature of the essential direct care given during this 36 week rostered placement. No one can seriously expect people to work, the full roster and range of duties, for no pay. We will fiercely resist this attack on these young professionals which amounts to nothing more than gross exploitation.”
She emphasises the student nurses replace qualified nurses and midwives and provide essential direct patient care.
“I have spoken with many of our pre-registration members around the country who are already finding it difficult, due to the demands of the programme, to make ends meet. This reality was confirmed to me when I met members from Dublin who were attending Dundalk IT and had placements in Letterkenny General Hospital. This meant that they had to rent accommodation in both places. Other colleagues had mortgages to pay and families to look after and had commenced the programme clearly of the view that a contract existed which would see them paid the 80 per cent rate in their fourth year.”
