LCR22663

1. Appeal Of Adjudication Officer Decision No(S) ADJ-00032022 CA-00042629-001.

BACKGROUND:

2. This matter comes before the Court as an appeal on behalf of T?sla/Child and Family Agency (‘the Respondent’) from a Recommendation of an Adjudication Officer (ADJ-00032022, dated 24 June 2022) under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act 1969.




DECISION:

The Worker is a qualified and experienced Public Health Nurse. She is employed by the Respondent as Co-ordinator of Parenting and Support Services in Kilkenny and Carlow and remunerated in accordance with the agreed pay scale for Public Health Nurses. The Worker is seeking to be regraded to Assistant Director of Public Health Nursing (‘ADPHN’) and remunerated in accordance with the pay scale applicable to that grade retrospective to 22 February 2021, when she referred her claim to the Workplace Relations Commission. The claim was successful at first instance and the Adjudication Officer recommended that “the Respondent place the [Worker] on the correct grade (as attaches to the early years inspector) within four weeks”.

The Worker’s Submission

The Worker submits that she has line management responsibility for Family Support Workers and Home Visitors who deliver the Lifestart Programme in Carlow-Kilkenny Community Services. Her written submission to the Court sets out in some detail the range of what she describes as the ‘managerial functions’ the Worker performs on a day-to-day basis which she submits are duties that did not form part of the contract of employment she signed following her appointment to her current role (in 2010) and are duties that are ordinarily associated with a higher, management grade.

While the Worker accepts that the ADPHN Grade is not a grade used by the Respondent, she submits that the Respondent employs a number of Early Years Inspectors who are remunerated in accordance with the ADPHN pay scale.

The Respondent’s Submission

The Respondent submits that the Worker’s role has not changed substantially since her appointment to it and that the role has always required the incumbent to undertake duties of a managerial nature. It also submits that concession of the Worker’s claim would be tantamount to a regrading of her role while circumventing nationally agreed recruitment procedures. It further submits that vacancies for the role of Early Years Inspector are advertised from time to time and the Worker is eligible to apply for such a position but has never done so.

The Respondent’s Representative informed the Court that the model of Parenting Supports and Services is currently under review at a national level in conjunction with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. A national review of Home Visiting is also underway and a five-year plan for Parent Support Strategy is being developed. The Respondent submits that it would not be appropriate for it to engage in local or regional discussions that could cut across the national level review.

Discussion and Decision

Having regard to the extant national level review of relevant services delivered by the Respondent and the potential broader implications of conceding the Worker’s claim to be regraded, the Court does not recommend concession of the within claim.

The Recommendation of the Adjudication Officer is, therefore, set aside.

The Court so decides.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Alan Haugh
IK	______________________
8 November 2022	Deputy Chairman