Labour Court recommends steps on Clontarf Hospital nursing staff dispute

The Labour Court recommended steps on a dispute between Clontarf Hospital and a group of nursing staff represented by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union. Its recommendation, dated 26 March 2018, covered a geriatric allowance, hand-over time, breaks and bleeps. The Court recommended that the parties raise the allowance issue nationally to establish what qualifies as a geriatric unit. It also recommended that, after a review clarifies future hand-over arrangements, the parties discuss compensation for past flexibility. Other recommendations covered systems to ensure staff receive breaks, a buyout of the additional payment to night nurses who took breaks on the ward, the PSA buyout formula for rotating staff who stopped receiving that payment in August 2016, and guidance on claiming compensatory breaks when bleeps interrupt breaks.