More than 2,500 workers excluded from healthcare pay deal ‘a breach of trust’

The exclusion of more than 2,500 care workers from a Government-backed pay deal reached to avert a strike by employees of voluntary organisation providing health and social services on behalf of the State has been described as “a breach of trust” by an employers’ group in the sector.

In a letter to the HSE the National Community Care Network (NCCN) said failure to grant the workers the 8 per cent pay award agreed at the Workplace Relations Commission in October would mean staff doing the same work for the same organisations were receiving different rates of pay, something it says would raise legal issues.

Unions representing staff across section 39, section 56 and section 10 organisations say no exclusions were sought by the Government negotiators during the talks leading to the deal, and that their understanding was that the agreement would apply to everyone working in the various sectors.

The sections mentioned refer to the parts of legislation under which the organisations are contracted to provide services in health and disabilities (S39), children (S56) and homelessness (S10).

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The unions are due to meet HSE representatives on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve the issue as talks about a further round of pay increases related to the recent public sector pay deal are due to start at the Workplace Relations Commission next week.

The NCCN said the workers in its sector were among those who understood they would benefit from October’s pay agreement. On April 11th, however, an umbrella body representing 22 individual organisations, including Rehab and a number of more localised service providers delivering some 2 million hours of care in the homes of people with various types of needs, was advised by Kosi, the firm employed by the HSE and Department of Health to administer the pay increases, that workers employed to provided services under tendered contracts would not receive the increases.

The effect, NCCN chief executive Susan Kelly said, is that staff working with people with disabilities would be included, while those working with older people would not.

“They are saying that the money we receive should be sufficient to cover the 8 per cent but the organisations we represent are not-for-profits paid less by the HSE than the cost of delivering these services. It simply won’t be possible for them to give the pay increases as it stands,” she says.

“What this will do is create a two-tier system, two groups of workers getting different levels of pay for doing exactly the same work. You can’t have that. And it’s a big chunk of money...for someone getting €15 an hour it would go up to €16.20. For someone doing 20 hours a week that’s €25. The refusal to pay sends completely the wrong message to people who are doing hard but very important work. It’s very wrong.”

The issue is the latest to arise in relation to the deal stuck late last year, with many organisations complaining about delays or questions over eligibility. The tendered contract issue has arisen in other sectors but is said generally not to involve a large number of workers.

In a statement the HSE said it “will be making adjustments to eligible organisations in relation to the grant aid element of their funding, in accordance with the agreement, once their application is made, reviewed and approved. This includes organisations that provide services to older people, and the process is ongoing.”

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