Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

A Psychiatric Nurse

A Health Service

Representatives

Self-represented

Shane Costelloe, Beauchamps LLP

Act

Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969

IR - SC - 00003489

29/11/2024

The worker has been employed as a nurse in a psychiatric ward since April 2021.  He is on point 13 of the pay scale for psychiatric nurses.  A copy of a payslip included in his documents shows that his annual salary in August 2024 was €53,121, not including allowances and premium pay.  A document he sent to the WRC on May 29th 2025 indicates that, in addition to his basic salary, he earned approximately €500 gross per week in premium pay and allowances.  The worker has been absent from work since Monday March 4th 2024 because of an injury which he claims occurred at work the previous Friday, March 1st.

The complainant is in dispute with his employer because he was not approved for leave under the employer’s Serious Physical Assault Scheme leave policy.   He is a member of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA).  At the opening of the hearing on this dispute, he said that he was advised by officials in the Association to submit a grievance about his concerns, which could be dealt with when he returned to work.  He said that he couldn’t wait until he returned to work because of what he claimed was “consistent harassment and penalisation.”  He said that he is suffering from numbness in his hand, and he also has psychological problems and he suffers from anxiety and depression.  He said that he wanted his voice to be heard.

At a hearing on May 26th 2025, I gave the worker an opportunity to be heard and I have considered his claims that he has been harassed and penalised since he went absent on March 4th 2024.  I understand that he remains an employee of the employer, and that he has not been dismissed or demoted.  At the end of a hearing lasting four hours, I concluded that he has not suffered any detriment arising from his reporting of an injury and his subsequent absence.  I understand that he is being paid certified sick pay which is equivalent to five sixths of his normal pay and that he is benefiting from social welfare illness benefit and from an income protection scheme.

Statutory Instrument 146 of 2000, the Code of Practice on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures, provides guidance to employers and employees regarding the resolution of grievances and the handling of disciplinary matters.  Paragraph 2 of section 3 of the Code sets out the benefit of having access to a grievance or disciplinary procedure:

Such procedures serve a dual purpose in that they provide a framework which enables management to maintain satisfactory standards and employees to have access to procedures whereby alleged failures to comply with these standards may be fairly and sensitively addressed. It is important that procedures of this kind exist and that the purpose, function and terms of such procedures are clearly understood by all concerned. 

Having reviewed the documents and the information provided at the hearing of this dispute, I am satisfied that the advice that the worker received from the PNA was reasonable and sound.  He was properly advised by his union about how to have his grievance investigated and, on his return to work, he will have an opportunity to do so.  It is not my function, as the adjudicator, to initiate an investigation into the employee’s grievances; my role is to examine how the procedures were utilised and to consider if the outcome was reasonable and fair.  I am satisfied that, when the employee brings his concerns to the attention of his employer, every reasonable effort will be made to resolve them.  Unfortunately, because he has failed to use the available mechanism to have his grievance investigated, there is no outcome for me to consider.

I recommend that the worker takes the advice of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, and that, when he recovers from his injury and returns to work, he engages with his employer to resolve his grievances.  In the absence of a grievance being submitted, I recommend that no further action is taken by the employer.

Greivance procedure