Being surgeons for years, we fully appreciate the work, dedication and empathy that nurses and midwives show daily. It is they who stay the course when the going gets tough in the theatres, intensive care units, emergency department, clinics and, wards.
We also fully appreciate that nurses, together with other healthcare professionals, have a privilege few other professionals have: that of making a significant difference in the lives of so many people when it matters most.
A lot has been said about the agreement government is negotiating with the MUMN. A lot has also been done to try to twist what is acceptable, what is reasonable and what is fair. Industrial action was taken by the union, which led to predictably dangerous consequences for the health of men, women and children.
Throughout it all, as ministers and representatives of the people, we remained more or less silent. We chose the road of dialogue rather than rabble rousing.
Even when our offer to the union was publicly misrepresented, distorted and maligned at the cost of the truth, we continued to prefer this course. The MUMN is even refusing to attend conciliatory meetings when it is obliged to do so, and yet we continue to try.
Despite the unfairness of it all, dialogue remained the only solution we considered. And we shall not stray away from it now. Having said this, we are now at a crossroads. The time has come to put our cards on the table. Here are the facts.
Let’s start with the hours worked. We offered that all hours worked in excess of 40 hours will no longer be compensated at a flat rate but on an hourly rate multiplied by 1.5. This alone will lead to a very significant increase in earnings to all nurses who work overtime hours but especially to those nurses who work 46 and 2/3-hour shifts.
From 2025 more nurses will start benefitting from a higher nursing premium as the categories for eligibility are lowered from the nurses who have 35 years of service to those who have 25 years of service and onwards- Chris Fearne and Jo Etienne Abela
In addition – affirming that our health services keep expanding and we need more input from our nurses – we will be further compensating nurses who work more than 56 hours a week, over and above their overtime payment.
We are proposing to increase nursing premiums across the board. In addition, as from 2025 more nurses will start benefitting from a higher nursing premium as the categories for eligibility are lowered from the nurses who have 35 years of service to those who have 25 years of service and onwards.
We are not stopping there. Annually we are proposing to increase the continuous professional development allowance, the management and training allowances and the fixed allowance by a significant degree.
Put in a timeline, our proposal leaves no doubt about who is putting their money where their mouth is. Between 2018 and 2022, the sectoral agreement for nurses and midwives was a very good one and included hefty increases. Our proposals today are offering increases which are more than double those we gave in 2018.
Effectively, as a result of the new sectoral agreement, the take-home pay of a nurse or a midwife will be increasing by around €6,000 annually by the end of the period. Our proposal reflects relativity within the hierarchy of the public health system and places nurses among the top-two tiers in terms of total take-home pay. You cannot argue with facts.
Clearly, our proposals show in no uncertain terms that we are treating nurses and midwives as professionals, respecting their work and remunerating them accordingly. For us this is the way forward for the country to recruit more of them and for retaining these pillars of our health sector.
We have shown our goodwill all along and we will continue to do so till the end. However, procedurally, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Going beyond the bounds of reason benefits no one. Not the management, not the union, not the nurses and certainly not the patients.
We both hope that good sense prevails as much as the facts already do.
Chris Fearne is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health. Jo Etienne Abela is Minister for Active Ageing.