The Public Services Committee of the ICTU has approved a measure to resolve an anomaly where increment measures, introduced as part of the Haddington Road Agreement (HRA), could have left some workers disadvantaged compared with those employed after 30th June 2016.

The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, in a letter sent to to the Committee last week, said that public servants recruited up to 30th June 2016 would be subject to the various increment measures of the HRA, while a colleague recruited the following day (1st July) would not be subject to the same measures and this would be “anomalous and counter-productive.”

The Department recognised that the majority of public servants will have already been subject to the increment deferrals or freezes under the terms of the HRA by the time the deal expires. However, some - such as some long service increments or where there was to be a three year incremental freeze - will not have been discharged by the agreement’s expiration date.

In order to address this, the Department have proposed that 1st July 2017 would be the final date to which any remaining increment measures incurred under the HRA would apply. The date was chosen because this is the earliest date a new recruit would attract an increment that would not be subject to any increment measures. “In effect where an increment measure provided for under the Haddington Road Agreement has not been discharged and serves to extend the date for the award of an increment beyond July 2017 it will not have effect” he said.

The Public Services Committee, which is chaired by IMPACT general secretary Shay Cody, has approved the measure.