LCR22739

1. Security Allowance

BACKGROUND:

2. This dispute could not be resolved at local level and was the subject of a Conciliation Conference under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission. As agreement was not reached, the dispute was referred to the Labour Court on 31 January 2023 in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990. A Labour Court Hearing took place on 31 March 2023, the following is the Recommendation of the Court:

UNION'S ARGUMENTS:

1. Security Allowance was removed for new entrants in 2007. Security Allowance is coded as "Personal to Holder" in the contracts of those who are in receipt of it.
2. In 2005, a national job evaluation of some grades was conducted. A new grade of Multi-Task Attendant was established.
3. Multi-Task Attendants are remunerated at Band 3. Porters, prior to this, were remunerated at Band 4.
4. The 50 workers (approx.) concerned are employed on the same contract and carry out the same duties as those in receipt of the Security Allowance.

1. The appropriate rate of pay is Band 3 without additional security allowance.
2. While the security allowance was discontinued to new entrants, the cohort of existing porters working from 2000 to 2005 could continue to receive same while at the same time being moved up to Band 3.
3. The claim to apply a security allowance to those not already in receipt of it would be a cost increasing claim, which is prohibited under the Public Service Agreement.

The within dispute concerns the basis on which an additional allowance has historically been paid to Multi-task Attendants/Porters based at Wexford General Hospital (‘Wexford’) and St Luke’s Hospital Kilkenny (‘Kilkenny’). The Union submits that the allowance dates to a collective agreement concluded in 2000 in respect of additional security duties performed by Porters in Wexford and Kilkenny. The Union submits that the collective agreement remains extant notwithstanding a national job evaluation of relevant grades that was conducted in 2005 and the establishment of the new grade of Multi-task Attendant (‘MTA’) remunerated at Band 3 i.e. Band 3 was established as the correct rate of pay for staff performing portering/security duties. Prior to the job evaluation, Porters were remunerated at Band 4.

It is submitted on behalf of the HSE that Porters in Wexford and Kilkenny were due to be redesignated as MTAs and placed on Band 3, along with their colleagues nationally, following the 2005 job evaluation exercise. It is accepted that the Union raised a claim on behalf of the porters in Kilkenny and Wexford and the HSE conceded in 2007 that the cohort of porters that had been in place in both locations between 2000 and 2005 could be moved to Band 3 while retaining the allowance agreed in 2000 on a personal-to-holder basis. The payment of the security allowance to new entrants, however, was discontinued.

The claim initiated by the Union in respect of members in Wexford and Kilkenny had been referred to the Labour Court but withdrawn before hearing. A letter, dated 31 May 2007, from the Union to the Labour Court indicating that the claim had been settled, was opened to the Court. In that letter, the Union representative states:

• “We are satisfied that following national discussions between our National Industrial Secretary, Mr Matt Merrigan and Mr Se O’Connor, Senior Representative of the H.S.E.A., that an agreement has been agreed and recommended for acceptance so therefore we have been advised by our National Representative that Management are to concede to our claim on a personal to holder basis which is now accepted by our Members herein.”

Discussion and Recommendation

Having considered the Parties’ submissions, the Court is in no doubt about the terms on which the claim advanced by the Union in 2006 in respect of the continued payment of the security allowance to MTAs/Porters in Wexford and Kilkenny was ultimately conceded by the HSE in 2007. There is no ambiguity in the letter penned by the Union Official dealing with the matter locally at the time: the terms of settlement provided that the allowance would be continued “on a personal-to-holder basis”. In short, relevant staff in situ at the time were red-circled and continued to receive the allowance in addition to their regrading to Band 3 but the allowance would not be payable to new entrants.

In the light of the foregoing, the Court finds that the within claim is not well-founded and does not recommend that the claim be conceded.

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Alan Haugh
NCL	______________________
25 April 2023	Deputy Chairman