Northern Ireland

Striking healthcare staff to have lost wages repaid

Health workers on the picket line outside Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry in January. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Health workers on the picket line outside Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry in January. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin Health workers on the picket line outside Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry in January. Picture by Margaret McLaughlin

NURSING and health care staff who took strike action are to have their lost wages repaid.

The executive has approved a proposal to reimburse workers who lost pay when they joined picket lines in late 2019 and again this year.

Staff had been campaigning for pay parity with Britain and what unions said were safer staffing levels.

The strike ended this year and unions agreed a way forward with the Department of Health over pay.

In March, it was announced that the money taken from workers would be reinstated.

Health Minister Robin Swann said in October that he had to seek legal advice on the potential repercussions of the decision and that had delayed payments.

Yesterday ministers approved the decision to reimburse the docked wages.

"This is a complex issue, involving legal considerations and the question of whether a precedent could be set for industrial action across many different workforces," Mr Swann said.

"My first priority on becoming minister was to resolve the industrial action. That was swiftly achieved. I hope now we can all put that chapter behind us and keep working together on combatting Covid-19 and rebuilding our health service."

First Minister Arlene Foster said the executive recognised the dedicated and selfless work of healthcare staff, nurses and doctors in every health setting at all times.

"It is welcome that concerns over any unintended consequences have now been resolved," she said.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill added: "I'm pleased that we now have a resolution that will see our nurses and healthcare staff reimbursed for the strike action they took.

"They have provided first class care in the most challenging of circumstances, and made huge personal sacrifices to look after our loved ones."

Meanwhile, hospitals that allow student nurses to treat Covid patients should be investigated as it is "an abuse", the Taoiseach has warned.

Micheál Martin said it was "wrong" for first-year nursing students to treat patients dying from coronavirus.

It comes as the Republic's government faces criticism for "refusing" to pay student nurses, who often work 10 to 13-hour shifts.

Mr Martin said that any cases of student nurses treating Covid-19 patients should be passed to the HSE.

"There should be an investigation, because no first-year student should be treating a Covid patient, which I have said repeatedly," Mr Martin added.

"That is an abuse. No hospital and no director of nursing should enable that to take place, particularly in the second wave of Covid, which did not have the same impact as the first wave on hospitalisations or ICU occupancy."