Tens of thousands of frontline nurses and midwives are being short changed and underpaid, according to new information released by the INMO today (Thursday).
Staff nurses and midwives secured higher salaries and extra allowances following their strike in February 2019, yet many workplaces have still not paid them the agreed monies.
The INMO estimates that approximately a quarter of the major hospitals have paid in full, with the majority still delaying.
For staff nurses and midwives, the allowances are worth between €740 and over €5,000, depending on their workplace and experience level.
Beginning in August 2019, the HSE issued instructions for hospitals and other employers to introduce the new allowances.
Hospitals – from various hospital groups – which have yet to pay the full amount include:
- - Cork University Hospital (South-South West)
- - University Hospital Limerick (UL)
- - Beaumont Hospital, Dublin (RCSI)
- - University Hospital Galway (Saolta)
- - Letterkenny University Hospital (Saolta)
- - Mayo General Hospital (Saolta)
Other employers, including community health organisations, have also failed to pay. A national expert group to look at pay for senior nurses has been constituted, but has still not met.
The INMO is calling on hospital groups to expedite payment, and for the Minister for Health to direct laggard hospitals to begin payments.
INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said:
Nurses and midwives are to the fore of the fight against COVID-19. While they are taking risks on the frontline, they are being short-changed by employers.
Allowances and salary scales are agreed nationally. Nurses and midwives are rightfully asking their employer to pay monies owed.
All the national procedural requirements for implementation were agreed months ago. This is an inexcusable prevarication from many of these employers, despite repeated calls from the INMO to implement the deal.
Many hospitals and employers are paying the full wages. It can and must be done. When our pay was docked during the strike, it was done instantly. Yet a pay rise takes some employers months to apply.
We have met the Minister for Health and called on him to direct the employers to pay what is owed to nurses and midwives in their next pay cheque.