ADJUDICATION OFFICER RECOMMENDATION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00005834
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Anonymised Parties | Fire Prevention Officer | City Council |
Representatives | Dessie Robinson IMPACT Trade Union |
|
Dispute:
Act | Complaint/Dispute Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 | CA-00008079-001 | 09/11/2016 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 21/2/2017 and 09/01/2018
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Rosaleen Glackin
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Acts 1969, andfollowing the referral of the dispute to me by the Director General, I inquired into the dispute and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the dispute.
Background:
The Complainant commenced employment with a named County Council in June 2008 and resigned his position on 14th December 2014. He took up a position with the Respondent on 20th January 2016. He is currently employed with another County Council. The Complainant is seeking that incremental credit should have been applied to him with he joined the Respondent on 20th January 2016 to take account of the period from June 20018 to December 2012 when he was employed with a named County Council. A Hearing was scheduled for 21st February 2017 but both Parties agreed to adjourn pending the outcome of the application from his current Employer to the Department of the Environment in relation to his service from 2008 to 2016. A further Hearing was then scheduled on 9th January 2018. |
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
The Complainant took up employment with the Respondent on 20th January 2016. He sought clarification from the Respondent on 24th January 2016 concerning his pay, pension and probation. He stated in this correspondence that he believed that Crc E02/2011 did not apply to his appointment with the Respondent and that he should be awarded incremental credit. This was declined by the Respondent. The Complainant is now employed by another named County Council, who did write to the Department and he was awarded incremental credit for the years 2008 to 2012. The Complainant is seeking that the Respondent should apply the same to his period of employment with the Respondent. |
Summary of Respondent’s Case:
The Respondent stated that prior to his appointment with them the Complainant sought that his appointment should be treated as “exceptional circumstance” under the Department Circular EL 02/20121 as he had previous experience with another named County Council. This was rejected by the Respondent as the Complainant was a serving officer on 1st January 2011 and therefore Crc EL 02/2011 did not apply to him. Likewise Circular EL 05/16 does not apply to him as he was not an existing public servant prior to his appointment with the Respondent. Evidenced was provided by the Respondent in relation to them seeking clarification from the LGMA in relation to the Complainant. Likewise Crc EL 05/16 does not apply to the Complainant as it is only relevant to an employee who moves from one part of the public service to another part of the service without a break. |
Findings and Conclusions:
On the basis of the evidence and written submissions from both Parties including all relevant Circulars, I find as follows: The Complainant was employed with a named County Council from June 2008 until he resigned his position on 14th December 2014. He next took up employment with the Respondent on 22nd March 2016. Therefore he had a break in service of one year and three months. I have examined in detail Circular EL 02/2011 issued to all Local Authorities on 28th January 2011. This provides that starting pay on recruitment from open competitions should be at the minimum point of the relevant scale. This applies to all new appointees who were not serving local authority employees on or after 1st January 2011. Where the person being appointed is a serving local authority employee the normal starting pay rules would continue to apply. This Circular does go on to state “where a County/City Manager is of the view that there are exceptional circumstances justifying the offer of starting pay above the minimum, the specific sanction of the Department (in consultation with the Department of Finance) should be sought in advance of any offer being made. The Complainant argued that the Respondent should have exercised this option but they chose not to. The Respondent sought the views of the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) in relation to this provision where they clarified that the “phrase” on or after 1st January 2011 refers to the point of appointment and does not refer to any person who may have been in employment during a particular period of time” and also clarified that a break in service of six months or more that a person is considered to have broken their service. It is clear from reading Circular EL 05/16 that this Circular does not apply to the Complainant as he was not a public servant moving from one part of the public service to another. I note the decision of his current Employer, another Local Authority, to seek sanction from the Department to have incremental credit applied to his service with all Local Authorities and this was agreed by the Department on 21st August 2018. I note that his previous Employer, another Local Authority, took a decision not to apply to the Department for sanction to apply incremental credit, although they did have that option. I note that all service with all three Local Authorities is counted for pension purposes. I cannot see any reason why the same rules should not apply across all Local Authorities, in relation to the awarding of incremental credit. His current Employer applied incremental credit but his previous Employer did not. I am recommending that the Respondent should apply incremental credit to the Complainant on the same basis as his current Employer has applied incremental credit as sanctioned by the Department. |
RECOMMENDATION
Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Acts, 1969 requires that I make a recommendation in relation to the dispute.
On the basis of the evidence and my findings above, I recommend that the Respondent should apply incremental credit to the Complainant on the same basis as that authorised by the Department in respect of the Complainant’s current employment with a Local Authority. This should be implemented within 42 days of the date of this Recommendation |
Dated: 1st May 2018
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Rosaleen Glackin
Key Words:
Incremental Credit for previous service across three Local Authorities. |