LCR20608

SUBJECT:
1. Delivery of meals-on-wheels.


BACKGROUND:

2. This dispute concerns the delivery of meals-on-wheels in the HSE Leinster region. This dispute could not be resolved at local level and was the subject of a Conciliation Conference under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission. As agreement was not reached, the dispute was referred to the Labour Court on the 28^thMarch 2013 in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990.



A Labour Court hearing took place on the 10^thSeptember 2013.

UNION’S ARGUMENTS:

3. 1. Home help in Laois have delivered meals on wheels for over twenty-five years. The service is four hours per day for two workers. The HSE have proposed a driver to replace the two workers to deliver the meals.

2. The people who the workers deliver the meals to are the most vulnerable in society and the workers may be the only people they see on a daily basis.


EMPLOYER'S ARGUMENTS:

4. 1. Following the restructuring of driver hours within the Midoc out-of-hours service, a number of staff became surplus to service needs and the process of redeployment commenced.

2. One of those drivers was redeployed to the Portlaoise region and the tasks/duties set out for him was to deliver the meals-on-wheels to a listed number of clients.

3. The Home Help Co-ordinator approached the workers who were carrying out the meals on wheels and requested they cease the practice and proposed they take on new clients in a direct home help role ensuring their current hours would be maintained.

RECOMMENDATION:

The matter before the Court concerns the HSE’s proposal to change the duties of two workers employed as Home Helps as set out in a HSE proposal to the Union dated 23^rdNovember 2012. Management proposed to remove delivering meals-on-wheels from the workers’ duties and replace these hours with core home help duties. The Union disputed Management’s actions on the basis that this duty has been carried out by the Home Help employees for many years and it feared the loss of such hours to private providers.

Having considered the submissions of both parties the Court notes that HSE Management has guaranteed that the two Home Help workers will not lose these hours and has also guaranteed that they will retain their contracted thirty hours per week and foresaw no reason why their current pattern of working in excess of their contracted hours should cease due to the removal of the delivery of meals on wheels duty. HSE Management also stated that the two workers will not incur a loss of earnings as a result of the change of duties.

HSE Management stated that the replacement core home help duty hours will primarily be taken from agency-provided hours thereby ensuring that there will be no loss of core home help hours.

On that basis the Court recommends that the two workers in question should accept the change of duties and recommends that the 23^rdNovember 2012 HSE proposal should be accepted and implemented without delay.

The Court so recommends.

Signed on behalf of the Labour Court



Caroline Jenkinson
CR______________________
24th September, 2013.Deputy Chairman



NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Ciaran Roche, Court Secretary.