Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

A Social Care Worker

A State Agency

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-46633-01

12/10/2021

The Worker asserts that she is fulfilling the duties of a Social Care Manager, which is at a higher grade to that which she is currently at, and is therefore seeking to be upgraded.

Further to transferring to the Employer, having worked in a different state agency since 1998, the Worker was asked to manage the Access House which involved assuming additional duties although she was not given a new job description or a revised contract of employment. Specifically, it was asserted that she is now managing staff and setting up policies and procedures, duties which are included in the Social Care Manager job description. As a result of her having assumed these additional duties, the Worker invoked and exhausted the Employer’s grievance procedure to have her position upgraded to that of Social Care Manager but was unsuccessful.

The Worker also stated that there is no job evaluation scheme available in the Employer and there is no internal mechanism to have her duties and work evaluated.

Prior to her employment transferring to the Employer, the Worker was employed at the grade of Social Care Leader. When the Employer was established on 1 January 2014, the Access Service was created and the Worker currently holds the title of Access Manager. This role of Access Manager is not a recognised grade with the Employer however and she is still employed at the grade of Social Care Leader, which is the same grade at which she was previously employed in the body she worked prior to 1 January 2014.

The Employer stated that because they do not recognise the grade of Access Manager in their organisational structure, they are unable to progress this claim due to there being no mechanism for job evaluation or re-grading. This is because job evaluations and re-gradings are cost increasing and are therefore prohibited under the national pay agreements. While it was accepted that there are several other Social Care Managers working with the Employer doing similar work, it was highlighted that these workers were employed in these capacities prior to joining the Employer and were red circled after the transfer.

The Employer also highlighted that the introduction of a Job Evaluation scheme/mechanism by the Employer remains a matter of dispute between DPER/Management and FORSA and has been referred to the Public Service Agreement Group.

Finally, it was asserted that the concession of this dispute would have a knock-on impact on other employees across the Employer who carry out a similar role to the Worker and who are employed at the same grade as she is.

While I accept that the Worker, in her capacity as Access Manager, is fulfilling duties above and beyond what she is expected to do as a Social Care Leader and find that her current pay grade does not reflect this workload, I must recognise in the first instance that a regrading exercise would be cost increasing and therefore at odds with the applicable pay agreement in the public sector.

In addition, I am of the view that a recommendation in favour of the Worker would have knock on implications and is therefore not a dispute which is appropriate for an individual recommendation.

I cannot make a recommendation in favour of the Worker for the reasons set out above.