The Labour Court has asked IMPACT to put forward a ‘business case’ to support its claim for the introduction of a job evaluation scheme in local authorities. The issue went to the court after local government employers refused to entertain it, even though a scheme has been in place in the health sector since last year.

IMPACT’s local government divisional executive will discuss the Labour Court recommendation at a scheduled meeting next week.

Used widely across the economy, job evaluation (JE) is a standard way of measuring whether or not specific posts are correctly graded. It works by independently assessing the skills and responsibilities required of particular posts.

The union argued that the introduction of a scheme similar to that won by IMPACT in health would increase flexibility and goodwill while providing an independent methodology for agreeing the correct rate of pay for any given job in the local government sector.

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