Health workers end industrial action
Unions ballot members on ending strikes.
Several health unions have called off industrial action after the new Department of Health’s Minister, Robin Swann, confirmed there will be pay parity for health workers across Northern Ireland.
In a written statement he confirmed workers will get their pay backdated from April 2019.
The money is expected to be included in their 2020 April pay.
Unions across the country have welcomed the news and have stepped off the picket lines following weeks of industrial action.
According to the Royal College of Nursing there are round two thousand and eight hundred vacant nursing posts.
The figures show record levels of expenditure on agency staff and nurses, while nurses pay here continues to fall behind the rest of the UK.
Statistics reveal band 5 nurses in Northern Ireland earn one thousand, four hundred and twenty seven pounds less a year.
The director of the Royal College of Nursing Pat Cullen said:
“There’s some hope coming across the horizon for those nurses who have very bravely courageously and determinedly stood out on picket lines and done the right thing.
“They’ve had their voice heard and that’s what we want to say, their voices haven’t just been listened to, it’s been heard.”
Fiona Devlin who is the Royal College of Nursing Board Chair said:
“On a personal note I went through a lot of emotional turmoil for weeks and months.
“I asked myself were we doing the right thing?
“As the RCN Northern Ireland Board Chair, your leading the board. You need to make sure what you’re doing and the decisions that you’re making are the right decisions for the membership and most of all for outpatients and the people of Northern Ireland.”
She added: “With a heavy heart I started thinking this isn’t me - going out on the picket line and what not.
“I have to say the first day that I stepped onto the picket line I was very proud that I was doing it because I knew I was doing it for the right reasons.
“When I did walk off the picket line I felt immensely proud.
“I walked off the line in front of the Belfast City Hospital where I started my training thirty years ago.”
The decision to end the industrial action came after several days of discussion with officials.
Robin Swann said he regrets how long it has taken to get pay parity for health workers.
He says it’s one of the reasons he personally went to visit workers out on strike.
In a written statement he says ge hopes the one hundred and nine million pounds will bring the current issue to a close.
The money provided by the Government includes pay parity for: nurses, nursing assistants, allied health professionals, paramedics, ambulance staff, pharmacists, social workers and social care workers.
It also includes administration and clerical staff, porters, catering staff and cleaners.