Vol. 515 No. 2
166 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Health and Children if he will make a statement on recent reports in national newspapers with regard to nurses on promotional grades who returned to work following the recent strike on the agreement that they would receive a lump sum and their salaries would be reviewed post Partnership 2000; and if the agreement reached at that time still stands. [5650/00]
The Deputy refers to the following extract from Labour Court Recommendation No. 16330:
Pay of Promotional GradeOn this issue the specially appointed Chairman to the talks has recommended that any discussions in relation to this area should be dealt with in a post Partnership 2000 setting. Consideration at that stage might include performance-related pay proposals.
In return for this it was agreed that those in Management posts would receive a £1,000 lump sum.
I can confirm that the Government accepted this finding, together with all other findings of the Labour Court in relation to nurses' pay, and this position still stands. The lump sum payment was sanctioned for payment in November 1999.
The latest partnership agreement, Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, negotiated between Government and the social partners, provides scope for addressing the pay issues of nurses in promotional grades and all nurses.
It is accepted that the traditional approach to pay reviews in the public service, based on analogues and relativities, has given rise to serious difficulties in the past, not least in the context of the nurses' pay disputes in recent years.
The Government and social partners have agreed that an alternative approach grounded in a coherent and broadly-based comparison with jobs and pay rates across the economy is required. Consequently, it has been agreed that a public service benchmarking body will be established to examine this issue over the life of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. Traditional or historical relativities between groups in a sector would not prevent the benchmarking body from recommending what it considers are appropriate pay rates on the basis of existing circumstances.
Assuming ratification of the programme, the pay of nurses in promotional grades will be dealt with in this context. This approach is wholly consistent with LCR No. 16330.
