Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

Catering Assistant

A Hospital

Representatives

Self-represented

Respondent’s HR Personnel

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

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

CA-00030694-001

02/09/2019

The worker is employed as a catering assistant with the employer since September 2005. She works 32.5 hours a week from 5.00 to 11.30am. She earns €27,532, per annum plus premia.

Her dispute is that the employer fails to distribute acting up assignments in a fair manner. She gets fewer opportunities than her colleagues.

She submitted her complaint to the WRC on 2 September 2019.

The worker contends that the employer has failed to honour an agreement arrived at in March 2015 which assured her of a fair and equitable distribution of acting up assignments. These acting up assignments carry an allowance of €9.99 per shift.

The complainant is employed as a catering assistant. Her role involves preparing breakfasts, dealing with special dietary requirements and catering for breakfast for the 1000 staff working in this 800-bed hospital. Part of her role entails stepping up to do the work of the Supplies Officer when he/ she is unavoidably absent or on leave. This means decanting supplies, checking the delivery against the order and compliance with Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points. (HACCP). The store cover roster in which she is engaged used to commence at 7.30 but the start time for this roster was changed in 2018 to 6.15 am. She starts at 5 am.

She used to get an equal percentage of acting up days / shifts with her colleagues.

She took her complaint through the various stages of the grievance procedure but failed to secure a satisfactory outcome with the employer arguing that the parent body circular letters prohibited an acting up payment where she, a non-officer grade acted up for an officer grade notwithstanding the fact that she has been acting up for the Supplies Officer as required and receiving payment for same for the previous 10 years. The worker requested a table from management showing the distribution of shifts and acting up allowances, but she got no response.

There are 7 catering assistants who act up in the absence of the supplies officer. She submitted evidence for 2019 showing that the highest number of acting up shifts went to colleague A who secured 23 shifts, the lowest, 1 assignment, went to colleagues F and G whereas she secured 7 slots. She got a minimum of 9-10 days cover in previous years. The daily allowance for store cover is €9.99.

She also presented evidence showing that her earnings for these acting up shifts were €159 .68 in 2015, €181.86 in 2016, €145 .66 in 2017, €82.44 in 2018 and €60.20 in 2019.

The worker is a catering assistant employed in the employers’ 800 bed hospital which has a staff complement of a 1000.

The worker ‘s primary function is to ensure that breakfasts are ready at 7.00 am, delivered to the wards at 7.30am, special dietary requirement are attended to and that breakfasts area available for staff.

In the absence of the Supplies Officer on leave, the worker steps up and functions in an acting up capacity in that role, putting supplies away, ensuring delivery areas are kept clean and tidy. She is paid an acting up allowance of €9.99 for each shift in which she works in the stores area. She earned €60.20 gross in 2019 and, €82.44 in 2018 for these acting up stints.

Previously supplies arrived at the hospital at different time and from different suppliers. Now one consignment from the same supplier arrives each morning at 6.15 when fewer staff are available. The employer is concerned that the significant work attached to receiving and dispatching these goods to their respective locations is a more time-consuming job than was the case previously when goods arrived in batches at different times and with different numbers of staff ready to receive them. Management must deploy staff according to their needs. The employer states that the complainant is a very conscientious, competent worker with a very good work ethic. But the main concern is that breakfasts will be ready for serving at 7.30 am.

The worker presented a grievance to the employer that she was getting less than her fair share of acting up assignments in the absence of the Supplies Officer. Her grievance was not upheld.

In addition to the operational difficulties, the employer argues that the arrival of circular letters from its parent body in 2013 discontinued the right to an acting up allowance except where the assignment exceeds 3 months. The employer referred to agreements which allow for an acting up allowance for ad hoc situations and for lesser periods when an employee is acting up in a more senior non- officer role. The movement of a catering assistant, a non- officer grade into an officer grade such as the Supplies Officer is prohibited.

The employer states that in the context of the regulatory frame work for acting up allowances and the exigencies of the catering department, guarantees are not possible.

While the regulatory framework for the payment of acting up allowances changed in 2013, the arrangements in this employment did not. The custom of acting up for the Supplies Officer and being paid for this survived all the circular letters discontinuing these practices by 7 years. While the payment of acting up allowances survived for support staff acting up into another higher paid support grade was addressed, and again survived the axing of the allowance, the acting up arrangements in the catering department seemed to have escaped the notice of the management.

The employer relies on Circular Letters coming from the parent body which disallow an acting up allowance when a worker such as a catering assistant and a non- officer grade steps up from a support grade into what is termed an officer grade. A Supplies Officer is one such grade. It is a matter which the employer is entitled to address with relevant staff in the relevant staff – management forum as opposed to putting it forward as an argument as to why one individual gets fewer acting up assignments than other staff.

There are 7 catering assistants who act up in the absence of the Supplies Officer. The median number of acting up shifts for the 7 catering assistants was 11.5 shifts per assistant for 2019. The worker secured 7 acting up opportunities. The average earnings coming from the acting up allowance was €85 per catering assistant in 2019 with the highest earner securing €229. The worker earned €69.93.

I note the worker states that the minimum number of acting up assignments up shifts secured by her prior to 2019 was 9-10.

I recommend that the employer provide her with an equitable distribution of acting up assignments for as long as the current arrangements survive, and prior to any staff- management negotiated change. Where an equitable distribution is not feasible, reasons should be provided to the worker. Over and above the equitable distribution, I recommend that she is given three extra acting up assignments over the course of the next 6 months in recognition of the shortfall of acting up opportunities experienced by the worker in 2019.

I recommend that the worker is provided with an equitable distribution of acting up assignments for as long as the current arrangements survive, and prior to any staff- management negotiated change. Over and above the equitable distribution, I recommend that she is given three extra acting up assignments over the course of the next 6 months in recognition of the shortfall of acting up opportunities experienced by the worker in 2019.

IR. Acting up opportunities.