Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

A Paramedic

An Ambulance Service

Representatives

  SIPTU

Internal HR Department

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-00043673-001

20th April 2021

The employee is employed as a paramedic since April 2004. In 2013, the employee commenced acting in the role of paramedic supervisor and continued acting in the role for in excess of seven years until April 2020. The employee is seeking that he be regularized into the role of paramedic supervisor on the basis of the length of time he was acting in the role.

Note: The element of the dispute concerning payments for periods of acting up is resolved. The employer confirmed the employee would be paid all outstanding payments due to him in respect of the period of his acting from April 2013 to November 2018 without delay. Payments in respect of December 2018 to April 2020 have already been made to the employee.

The Union (on behalf of the employee) contends that the employee should be regularised in the role of paramedic supervisor as he has been acting in the role since April 2013. The employee outlined that the policy on acting up states that “the time frame for filling vacancies must not exceed 6 months from the time of vacancy”. The employee also cited the guidance document in respect of Circular 17/2013 which states that “temporary appointments beyond 12 months should only be on an exceptional basis as they would run counter to the concept of temporary appointments”. The employee also cited Labour Court Recommendations LCR22289 and LCR21771 in support of his position that as he was acting up for a period well in excess of 12 months that he should be regularised in the role of paramedic supervisor.

The employer outlined that the employee only began acting up to a permanent vacancy in January 2017. An open competition was organised in line with the agreement concluded with the trade union and the employee was not successful at this competition and was not placed on the panel at that time.

The employer stated that the practicalities of organising a national recruitment process resulted in some delays which led to the employee continuing to act up in the grade of paramedic supervisor initially until April 2019 but ultimately until April 2020. At that point the post was filled from the panel following the competition held in 2018. The employer stated that the employee could not have had any expectation of permanent appointment to the role as he had been unsuccessful at the competition in 2018. The employer cited Labour Court Recommendation: LCR 22154 in support of its position that the provisions of circular 17/2013 were correctly applied in respect of the employee’s period of acting up to the senior role.

The matter for consideration in the within dispute concerns the employee’s claim for regularisation into the paramedic supervisor grade based on having acted up in the role from 2013 until 2020.

The employer confirmed that a permanent vacancy arose in January 2017, and it was only at that time that the provisions of Circular 17/2013 could have come into effect in relation to the employee’s period of acting up. Around the same time in early 2017, the employer and trade union concluded an agreement under the auspices of the WRC to the effect that there would be no regularisation to the post of paramedic supervisor without an open competition to fill vacancies. In light of the collective agreement, an open competition was arranged in 2018 and the employee was unsuccessful in being placed on the panel at that time.

The employer contends that the employee’s period of acting up was justified based on the complexities and the time involved in organising a national recruitment process as well as the circumstances surrounding the delay in eventually appointing a suitable candidate to the role. The requirement of the employee to act up to the paramedic supervisor role ceased in April 2020. While the employee continued to act in the role until September 2020, the employer stated that this was of his own volition and was unnecessary as the station where he was assigned was at full complement from April 2020.

Having considered the matter, I find that it is not within my remit to recommend regularisation to a particular grade in circumstances where the parties themselves have collectively agreed a process in relation to the filling of vacancies. To do so would go against the concept of collective agreements. However, in the instant case, the complainant continued to act up for approximately two years even though he was unsuccessful in the competition of 2018. In my view the employee deserves further recognition for this especially in circumstances where the period of acting went well beyond the timeframe outlined in the employer’s own policies and procedures.

Having considered the submissions of the parties, I do not recommend that the employee be regularised into the grade of paramedic supervisor, however in the particular circumstances pertaining to this dispute, I recommend that the employee be paid €5,000 in acknowledgement of the period of time spent acting up in the senior grade.

Acting up arrangements, regularisation.