MENTAL health workers striking in support of a sacked colleague will return to work on Monday.
Up to 150 staff have been on a continuous walkout since the start of November, after Karen Reissmann, a nurse for 25 years, was allegedly dismissed for speaking to the media about controversial service changes.
Ms Reissmann learned this week she had lost her appeal against the decision and now plans to go to an industrial tribunal.
But that could take up to nine months to arrange.
Now trade union Unison has struck a deal with bosses at the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust.
The agreement will see staff return to work at 8am on Monday. In return they are likely to receive pay for work done before Christmas.
A suggestion that Ms Reissmann could be referred to professional nursing watchdogs over her conduct has also been dropped, the Manchester Evening News understands.
Protest
Union bosses have warned there could be more strike action in the new year and there are plans to stage a protest at the Houses of Parliament.
Senior sources said the striking workers voted unanimously to accept the deal with the trust.
Ms Reissmann said she `absolutely' supported the decision.
She said: "It is the right decision but we are not saying the campaign is ending. We are just changing the focus.
"Instead of an indefinite strike we are looking at a more political campaign."
Neil Linksy, for Unison, said: "We are not saying this is over but we have to be realistic."
Ms Reissmann was originally suspended in June, after criticising the trust about changes planned under a reform programme called Change in Mind. She claimed it would mean job losses and spending cuts. The trust has admitted Change in Mind will bring changes in working practises but insists it will also bring the biggest single investment in mental health services for more than a decade.
Ms Reissmann was dismissed for gross misconduct, sparking a walkout by dozens of her colleagues. She described the rejection of her appeal against dismissal as `absolutely disgusting'.
In a joint statement, the trust and Unison said: "Following protracted negotiations, agreement has now been reached on the suspension of strike action and a formal return to work with effect from 8am Monday December 17. Both sides agree this is in the best interests of all concerned, which fundamentally includes patients."
Are the nurses right to go back to work? Have your say.
Striking nurses back to work
December 14, 2007
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I have been a mental health nurse for more than 20 years. I do the job because I enjoy the work and care about the patients. Ironic as it may sound it is for these reasons that I have spent the past 5 weeks on a picket line. I have great respect for Karen as a nurse and union steward. I belive that not only was she right to speak out about cuts and privatisation,( sorry Sheila, reconfigeration) it was her responsability as a nurse.
I have mixed feelings about returning to work. For the sake of my patients, most of who have had no service during the strike, I am pleased the the strike has been suspended. But we have to be mindful of the fact there will still be a number of patients in the city who no longer have a community nurse as Karen has not yet been reinstated. This may mark the end of this battle but by no means the end of the war!
This will be a dark cloud lingering over the Trust until Karen's inevitable victory at a tribunal. This has been a total embarrassment for the Trust. Only the usual desire for government , health authorities and Trust directors to be seen to be united will keep the present regime in power for a bit longer.
It is my belief that justice will be done in the end when an independent tribunal hears the case. The shabby behaviour of the Trust will be exposed as gross mismanagement and hopefull the guilty individuals will be held to account. The only reasonable course of action was to suspend the strike and that is the action that the nurses have taken with magnamity. It is diffulct to see the Trust acting in anything other that a vindictive and damaging way if the strike had not been suspended. The nurses must be congratulated for bringing a bit of sense to this dispute, Lord knows the Trust lack any semblance of sense. Foley's legacy will last for a long time but her demise is hopefully imminent. I say "WELL DONE" to the nurses and continue the fight for justice.