LCR22294

1.Appeal of Adjudication Officer Recommendation No. ADJ-00025884.

BACKGROUND:

2.This matter was referred to an Adjudication Officer for investigation and Recommendation.

On the 17 June 2020, the Adjudication Officer issued the following Recommendation: -

“I have found some merit in this dispute. I recommend that that the claimant accepts a redeployment to the named post at hearing. However, considering the variance in grading, B13 of the PAS document should prevail.
If they move to a post where the pay scale ends at a higher point than theirs, they continue their own pay scale to its maximum
Following 6 months in post, it must be open to the parties to apply the addendum to this section through agreed job evaluation.
I make this recommendation in full and final settlement of all claims arising from 2013 /2014 Reconfiguration and I have not identified grounds for an award of compensation. I consider it fairer and more reasonable for the claimant to now be placed in an area where he expressed an earlier interest and for which he expressed an interest in career enhancement going forward
I also recommend that the parties engage in a collaborative evaluation report of all such Reconfiguration exercises such they re-occur in the future as nobody at any level should be left behind.”

The Employer appealed the Adjudication Officer’s Recommendation to the Labour Court on the 24^thJuly 2020 in accordance with Section 13(9) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969.

A Labour Court hearing took place on the 7^thOctober 2020.

DECISION:

The issues in dispute between the parties arise from a re-configuration of the Ambulance services and in particular the impact of same on this particular Worker. In the course of the hearing the parties indicated to the Court that they had discussions which they felt might provide a resolution. SIPTU requested that the Court recommend that the Worker be subject to a job evaluation, through the HSE clerical job evaluation scheme for the clerical role he performed in Cork HQ between 2015 and 2018 following the closure of the NAS command and control centre. It was accepted by the parties that in that role he had responsibility for rosters, covering sick leave, annual leave etc and was reporting to the Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer Mr Michael Norris. It is the Workers submission that the role he was performing during the period in question was effectively that of an ORM which he submitted is analogous to Grade VI. The parties agreed that NAS management would assist him with the job evaluation application form, and in seeking to have his application fast tracked through the existing scheme.

The Court decides that the parties should proceed on the basis set out above. The decision of the Adjudication Officer is varied accordingly.

The Court so decides.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Louise O'Donnell
NJ	______________________
20 October 2020	Deputy Chairman