CORU professional registration fees will be frozen at their current rate of €100 a year if the proposed new pay deal is accepted. Health and social care professionals including social workers, dieticians, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists have to pay the annual registration fee before they can practise.
Physiotherapists also came under CORU registration last year, but IMPACT has been advising them not to register yet. Other health and social care professions, including social care workers, are due to come under CORU registration over time.
IMPACT successfully negotiated the CORU fee down from €295 to €100 a year under a previous agreement. The union insisted the cost must be frozen – at least until the deal expires at the end of 2020 – during the recent pay talks.
The union believes many health and social care professions could also stand to gain from the proposed review of recruitment and retention issues. Under the agreement, this would mean a study of the causes of recruitment and retention problems in named areas including physiotherapy, OT and speech and language therapy.
The recent report of the Public Service Pay Commission found that these three professions had significant retention issues, on a bigger scale than nurses.
Recent recruits to the health and social care professions could also gain from a process to deal with parity for staff who entered the public service in 2011 and after. IMPACT believes this process, which will be open to unions that accept the agreement, could lead to income improvements for recent entrants through a shortening of pay scales.
As well as these specific features, the proposed agreement would see health and social care professionals benefit from pay restoration worth up to 7.4% over the lifetime of the deal, plus a €575 reduction in the so-called pension levy.
IMPACT’s elected central executive committee has recommended acceptance of the deal. Voting closes on Friday 14th July.
Read more about the proposed pay deal HERE.
