Haddington Road Agreement

What will the Haddington Road Agreement mean for you?

The Public Service Stability Agreement or Haddington Road Agreement was founded in 2013, initially increasing the working weekly hours from 37.5 to 39. The Independent Body Examining Additional Hours (HRA) was established and was tasked with making recommendations to address the additional working time introduced for many civil service and public servants under the initial 2013 Haddington Road agreement. From July 2022 the reversal of this agreement will be introduced throughout numerous different settings across the Nursing Industry.

How will it affect you?

Depending on if you work in the private or public sector as a nurse, the general consensus is that this agreement will be introduced across all divisions. Speaking with nurses and nursing management on a regular basis we have seen the new agreement being introduced from today or implemented in the coming months.

Although the weekly working hours are reducing from 39 to 37.5, the good news is that this should not affect your weekly take home pay. The hourly rate will be increased to accommodate the change. And the INMO nursing salary scale will not be changing or amended.

• In the Public Health HSE Nursing Team the daily schedule has just been reduced by 20 minutes per day. Or 90 minutes per week to bring the Nurses hours in line with the Haddington Road Agreement.
• In the private sector we have seen the nurses daily hours reduced but also have witnessed a change in the weekly hours, where only one of the days are being affected. Feedback of working 3 long days and one shorter day has been welcomed by the nurses affected!

Realistically it is a welcomed change, but the bigger issue of the INMO salary scale for Nursing in Ireland is a completely different story. Last October a Nurse received a 2.5% salary increase on the INMO salary scale however the cost of living in Ireland increased by 10% in the last year!

We are constantly speaking with Nurses who need to relocate due to the high cost of living, especially in higher populated areas such as Dublin, Cork and Galway. Concerns over the fact that the salary scale does not take into account where you are working there is no difference in a Nurses salary if she is living in Dublin, average rent of €2,088 per month or Leitrim, average rent of €817 per month! That’s a difference of €1271 in disposable income on a monthly basis or a staggering €15,252 a year.

Although the INMO has endorsed participation in a public service wide campaign to address the cost of living crisis for its members, I am afraid to say we may not see the sense of urgency that is desperately needed from the Government to resolve this issue.