Staff at St Christopher’s in Longford have balloted in favour of a phased restoration to the appropriate point on their pay scales, following a pay freeze applied at the height of the financial crisis in 2008. St Christopher’s is a ‘section 39’ agency providing high quality, community-based services to people with intellectual disabilities.

Fórsa official Tony Martin said the pay freeze was part of a sustainability and recovery process during the recession, and had the effect of suspending increments at whatever point of scale staff were on at that time.

“The effect was that many of our members didn’t move along their incremental scale, with non-payment of increments building up over several years.

"An unforeseen consequence of this was when St Christopher’s resumed the recruitment of new staff and placed them on current pay scales, which are the consolidated public service pay rates. It led to a situation where recently appointed staff were getting paid more than those with several years’ service.

“Our local reps pursued the resumption of pay scale progression and a return to the appropriate scale point for the long-term staff affected by this anomaly. Fórsa referred the matter to the WRC in June, and secured an agreement that fixes the issue of pay scales and increments. Members balloted for a phased return, over 14 months, to the appropriate point on the scale for each member of staff affected,” he said.

Retrospection hasn’t been included at this stage, but the employer has made a commitment at the WRC that retrospection would be paid in full when finances allow. “We’ve built in a three-month review at the WRC on this particular issue,” said Tony.

Representing over 30,000 health workers including health and social care professionals, clerical, administrative, management and technical staff. We consider it one of the many strengths of the union that our members are central to the delivery the full array of health and welfare services in Ireland. To find out more about the range of grades represented, and where they operate within those services, visit our map “At the heart of Health and Welfare.”