More than 250 civil servants who took part in limited industrial action two years ago have secured leave from the High Court to bring proceedings aimed at winning back entitlements which they lost as a result of their removal from the payroll for a period during the industrial action.
The Department of Agriculture civil servants are members of the Civil and Public Service Union and are challenging, in judicial review proceedings, their removal from the payroll at different times between April and June 2003. The industrial action centred on a row over promised promotions in the wake of the increased workload during the foot-and-mouth crisis.
Mr Justice Liam McKechnie was yesterday told by Michael Cush SC, for the civil servants, that the figure for the knock-on loss of service and pension entitlements was quite significant.
During the dispute they continued to perform partial duties at work, they refused to deal with telephone and fax queries in the morning and afternoon or to deal with counter queries in the afternoon. They were removed from the payroll.
Fourteen civil servants later challenged this removal in the courts. The Supreme Court last March held that the partial withdrawal from work duties did not constitute unauthorised absence from duty and it ruled that the removal of the workers from the payroll was null and void.
In July, the department was asked to reinstate the workers on the payroll for the period they were removed and to reimburse all increments and remuneration lost. In the absence of a favourable response to that request to date, the legal proceedings were initiated yesterday.