Commenting on today’s publication by the Department of Finance of the Northern Ireland public sector pay policy for 2019-2020, along with an ensuing Department of Health press statement on its implication for the pay of nurses and other health workers, RCN Northern Ireland Director Pat Cullen said:
“Today’s announcement will come as no surprise to Northern Ireland nurses. This is the same self-serving rhetoric that they have been listening to for many years from the Department of Health. The implication that a fair pay award can only be made by cutting services is deeply offensive, as is the contention that nurses in Northern Ireland somehow do not merit pay equality with their colleagues in the rest of the UK.
“Perhaps more importantly, it ignores the central focus of the RCN’s safe and effective care campaign that fair pay is an important tool in the recruitment and retention of the nurses that we desperately need to fill the 3,000 vacancies that currently exist in the HSC alone. This is simply not good enough.
“The RCN is currently balloting members in Northern Ireland on industrial action, including strike action, over nurse staffing levels and pay equality. The ballot closes next week and our members will then give their verdict on the attitude of the Department of Finance and the Department of Health towards the concerns over patient care and pay equality that they have now been articulating for many years.”
