RTE
Nurses and midwives could strike if their pay demands are not met with salary increases in 2019, according to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation.
Speaking at its annual conference in Cork, General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said that the union is awaiting publication of a Public Service Pay Commission review of staff shortages among nurses and midwives, which is due next month.
Within the following month, the INMO is due to meet the Government to discuss implementation of the PSPC recommendations to address the difficulties with recruitment and retention.
However, Ms Ní Sheaghdha warned that, if members rejected proposals emanating from those negotiations, the INMO will ballot them for industrial action – “up to and including the withdrawal of their labour”.
An emergency motion to that effect will be debated at the conference tomorrow. . . [Full Text]
The organization asserts that Irish nurses and midwives are “very low paid front line workers” and that three quarters of 2018 nursing and midwifery interns are thinking of leaving Ireland when they graduate. In these circumstances, compelling unwilling practitioners to facilitate abortion by referral or other means seems imprudent for purely pragmatic reasons, even if abortion advocates are ideologically committed to mandatory referral.