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FULL RECOMMENDATION
PARTIES : HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE/HSE WEST DIVISION :
SUBJECT: 1. Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No(s) ADJ-00025468, CA-00032330-001 The Worker is a Registered Nurse Intellectual Disabilities (‘RNID’). She is working as a member of a community-based, multi-disciplinary mental health team. She is remunerated at the top of the CNM2 scale and is also paid a specialist Qualification Allowance of €3,561.00. The Worker is seeking payment of the Community Allowance which two of her colleagues – both Registered Psychiatric Nurses (‘RPN’) – receive in place of her Qualification Allowance. The Community Allowance is €5,900.00 per annum. The Worker accepts she is not permitted to receive two allowances simultaneously. The Worker – with the support of her manager - initiated an application for the Community Allowance in January 2017. The application was unsuccessful. The matter was subsequently the subject of an internal grievance process. The Worker submits that her duties, workload and client profile are the same as those of her RPN colleagues and, therefore, as a matter of equity and fairness she should also receive the Community Allowance payable to them. She further submits that since 2013 only RPNs can be appointed to nursing roles in community-based mental health services and, for that reason, her circumstances are unique with the result that concession of the within claim would not have knock-on effects. The Employer submits that rates of pay, including allowances, for different nursing grades are determined by national collective bargaining agreements; the Community Allowance sought by the Worker in this appeal was put in place on foot of a collective agreement and is payable, under that agreement, only to RPNs who work in the community. The Employer also submits that the scale according to which RPNs are remunerated ranges from €49,785.00 to €58,589.00 i.e. the top of that scale is significantly lower than the top of the scale applicable to the Worker (€60.792.00). In the Employer’s submission, the within claim is a cost-increasing claim that, if conceded, would be a breach of Building Momentum and would lead to knock-on claims from the nursing trades unions. Decision The Court finds that the Worker is properly remunerated in accordance with the national collective bargaining agreements that apply to RNIDs. The Court – mindful of its Recommendation in LCR18904, dated 28 May 2007 – further finds that there is no basis for extending the Community Allowance to the Worker who is not within the category of workers to whom the Community Allowance was originally applied within the terms of the relevant 2003 collective agreement. The Court so decides.
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