Nurses threaten to escalate industrial action

The INO/PNA alliance said they were deeply disappointed and frustrated at the lack of progress and threatened to escalate stoppages and walk-outs.

"The two executives were particularly angered by the failure of health service management to make any meaningful offer with regard to a date for the introduction of a 35-hour week or positive measures to address the pay anomaly," the unions said.

Some 45,000 nurses have been in an increasingly bitter dispute with the Health Service Executive for the last month as they push for improved pay for less hours.

It began with a work-to-rule with nurses refusing to answer phones or carry out administration duties. Instead they claimed they were devoting their time to caring for patients.

That was followed with hour-long work stoppages at hospitals around the country.

And it was only last week they decided to call off an escalation of the industrial action and enter talks with the NIB - they had planned to target more than 50 hospitals in 16 counties over two days.

The INO/PNA issued a joint statement warning they were prepared to go back on strike.

"The meeting decided to advise all local co-ordinating committees that, in the absence of meaningful proposals capable of resolving this dispute, to prepare for escalation of the campaign before the end of this week," the unions said.

The INO/PNA executives will meet again on Thursday to review the situation.

Nurses have made several demands including a 35-hour week and 10.6% pay increases - well outside the national wage agreements.

The Health Service Executive has rejected these and government ministers including outgoing Taoiseach have insisted the pay claim must be assessed within the benchmarking programme.