The NSWNMA has written to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) offering wholehearted support for their boycott of a scheme offering new graduate nurses only 80 percent of the agreed pay rate.
Ireland’s Health Service Executive has extended the deadline for the scheme by two weeks and also opened it to graduates from 2010 and 2011 after receiving a “minimal” number of applications following the INMO’s call for a boycott of the scheme.
Judith Kiedja, Acting General Secretary of the NSWNMA, wrote to Claire Mahon, INMO President, congratulating her organisation on their boycott campaign.
“We in Australia are very aware of the extremely difficult times that the Irish people, and nurses and midwives in particular, have been facing in the wake of the global financial crisis, however, initiatives such as this will do nothing to restore confidence in the Irish economy going forward.
“In the meantime the damage it will cause to the nursing profession is immeasurable. The initiative will pit nurse against nurse as they work alongside each other doing the same job with the same responsibility for lower rates of pay. Your newly graduated nurses have played by the rules and achieved their graduate status and for your health authorities to turn around now and use the nation’s economic situation to attempt to lure them into limited employment at substandard salaries … is nothing short of obscene.
“We congratulate you on your campaign, wish you every success and urge newly graduated nurses to continue to support the boycott. You are worth the standard base salary at a minimum and you must maintain your resolve. Your Australian colleagues and unionists support you wholeheartedly at this difficult time.”
Download the full letter below.
For more information about the INMO campaign, visit their website.
