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Tough on Strikes (Tough on the Causes of Strikes?)
Read more about: Democracy, Fianna Fail, Government, Health, Irish Election, Irish Politics, Media, Progressive Democrats
(With apologies to Tony Blair for the headline)
The HSE (with government backing) are thinking of docking pay for striking nurses. Enda reckons it won’t make things any better, and I cant see how this will get nurses back to work. Unless the government/HSE feel that being tough on the nurses is the only strategy open to them in an electoral cycle. Though politicians would never play politics with this, would they? I think workers have a right to strike, however the employers and unions have a responsibility to resolve the issue, not to push each other to the brink.
I think this has been badly handled tactically but, like most issues, have no idea where the broader public opinion stands on this. Doubtless it is split. Indeed it is split within Fianna Fail. It is back to policy alright but the strongest argument in all this is that the structures need to be put in place to end future strikes. All parties have ideas, one set have had ten years. That thought though, strikes me as slightly facetious, considering some of the writing on the Bitter Pill suggests that there is a network of issues surrounding work practices for all jobs and all skills in the service.
Hammering nurses on this is the only way to prevent other grades demanding the same treatment. So tough on the the causes of strikes? This boils down to money they can spend and staff they can take on. Tackling the causes of strikes involves what? Reform, internal cooperation between interested parties and primarily, a return of power to the top of the chain and a return to the idea of service. This is a huge task it seems, one I am unsure any party can successfully achieve.
I am not an expert and in two minds on this one. The risk of looking like a heartless government is one that faces Harney and FF now. Unless it is about ‘tackling vested interests’.
Does anyone see this tactic benefiting the government parties?
Shows the problem with the public-sector which is run largely for the workers as opposed to the consumers/patients.
Just another bad decision on brought to you by the PD/FF government. Mary Harney is the highest paid Minster for Health in Europe, fact. What has this high salary bought us?
If the PD/FF government had any sense they’d give in to the nurses demands for a start, they are not that un reasonable consider that we place our lives in their hands.
Cian “I think workers have a right to strike” - is fine, but it you are not working then why should you be paid?
And Daniel, it is pretty much accepted that the Nurses pay claim will have to be delt with through the benchmarking process. As for getting a 35 hour week, I have yet to hear a good reason why they should get this over anyone else (like for example junior doctors who recently came down to a 60 hour week). “we place our lives in their hands” isn’t a reason.
Taking your logic it could be a justification for anything. We should give every nurse a new Porsche because “we place our lives in their hands”?
True enough SK conversely though, the docking of pay is not designed to get anyone to the table. It is designed to deepend a standoff and turn it into some sort of toughness contest. Which is where benchmarking comes in.
Benchmarking is not some set-in stone process, it is as malleable as the taoiseach’s ideology. There is room for some leeway on this within benchmarking (as i am sure there is on the 35 hour week, you gotta be able to give in on something to get something in return).
I am not suggesting giving in for its own sake, but there is a need to get back around a table and consider all demands from all sides and move forward. Simple as that. the logic has to be delivery and service.
I agree with you SK on junior doctors, its worse than a travesty the way they are treated. Its nonsense. I am not au fait with why it is they need to do 40 hour shifts but logic is suggesting a lack of staff numbers to cover less hours. Either a function of medical places (and the way they are filled) or lack of incentive to stay in the system for grads? Or a function of cap on public service hiring?
Yes, SK, we should give every nurse a new Porsche /sarcasm
I might remind everyone that junior doctors have not come down to a 60 hour week in Ireland. NCHDs of all grades are still working 80-120 hour weeks here, with shifts as long as 56 hours often at a stretch with no break. Management impose rotas on us that we have little or no control over, and we face inciting consultant wrath if we do not comply with rotas in some instances. Pregnant NCHDs are forced to do these hours too, or risk losing their jobs, one that I know of in a hospital in the South Eastern region lost her baby after a 60 hour shift with no break when she was approx 7 months along. No one does anything about it and no one seems to care. Yet it’s apparently unthinkable that nurses do a 39 hour week and the whole country is in turmoil over it. I for one don’t get it, but I don’t have to as I am leaving medicine in Ireland in a few short months for ever. Sadly, a lot of NCHDs don’t have that choice, they have kids, mortgages, etc, and have to keep paying the bills. I am one of the lucky ones, with my student loans now paid off I am a free woman!