Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

A Senior Nurse

A Hospital

Representatives

Maeve Brehony of Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation

Mark Comerford of IBEC

Act

Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

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

IR - SC - 00001796

19/09/2023

The worker says the employer has not applied the correct grading and corresponding pay scales to her as a Directorate Nurse Manager. The employer says the dispute is in relation to a pay scale that is also applicable to other Directorate Nurse Managers. As such it is a collective issue rather than an individual one and I am precluded from making a recommendation by section 13 (2) of the Industrial Relations Act 1969.

The worker was appointed as Directorate Nurse Manager (DNM) from 28 September 2020. As DNM the worker was part of the senior management team in the hospital. She is a key member of the Directorate Management Team, providing operational and clinical leadership across the range of services within the Directorate.

The DNM reports to the Clinical Director and supports, and is professionally accountable to the Director of Nursing in relation to leading the nursing service and working in close collaboration with the Business Development Manager, Clinical Director, Heads of Departments and other healthcare professionals in relation to the management and development of clinical services within the Directorate.

On appointment the worker was graded as a Grade 8 and offered 28 days annual leave and a 39 hour working week. This was akin to other senior nurse managers but distinct from other Grade 8s who had a 37 hour contractual working week and had 30 days annual leave. In October 2021 her annual leave was changed to 30 days, the same as other Grade 8s.

DNMs are the only employees in the hospital who provide cover for the Director of Nursing. This is not done by any other Grade 8. They also carry a bleep for emergency contact, this is not done by any other Grade 8.

The worker says she is graded at Grade 8, whilst similar counterparts in other hospitals are graded at Director of Nursing (DON) band 1 and band 2. 

The worker is incorrectly graded on a non-nursing scale, as opposed to DON band 2. She seeks to be re-graded to DON band 2, for this to retrospective to her date of appointment as DNM, that her years of service in this post are taken into account when placing her on the scale and her pension readjusted accordingly.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

The employer says the dispute is in relation to the worker’s pay grade in the role of DNM and the pay grade applies across the board to other DNMs in the hospital and nationally across numerous S38 organisations. Therefore, the dispute is connected with the rates of pay of a body of workers and is a collective issue rather than an individual one. Therefore, the Adjudicator is precluded from making a recommendation by section 13 (2) of the Industrial Relations Act 1969.

The worker commenced employment with the employer on 10 October 1998. She was appointed to the position DNM Medicine/Emergency Medicine Directorate on 28 September 2020.

The DNM role was introduced by the hospital in 2019. The alignment of the DNM roles to the Grade 8 salary scale for pay purposes was consistent and reflective of other comparable Academic Teaching Hospitals and it reflects the seniority and responsibility of the DNM role. The contractual working hours are based on nursing conditions of employment ( 37.5 hours week, wef July 2022. With effect from 2021 the DNMs receive 30 days annual leave, the same as others on the Grade 8 scale, which is different from nursing annual leave arrangements; 28 days after 10 years’ service.

Following local engagement on a collective basis in relation to the DNM roles the employer outlined the following:

·       It is acknowledged that following the application of national pay awards the pay differential between the Assistant Director of Nursing Band 1 and Grade 8 has been altered.

·       The employer does not object in principle to the alignment of senior nursing management posts to nursing pay structures but there are considerations with regards to why the hospital cannot proceed to accede to a request for a Job Evaluation.

·       The employer is not designated as a Model 2 hospital and cannot apply the pay grade of DON band 2.

·       Any resulting adjustment to the grading and pay would have consequential and precedential impact across other comparable hospitals and these are matters of public sector pay policy.

The employer concludes this is not an individual dispute, given the collective and national implications.

In conducting my investigation, I have taken into account all relevant submissions presented to me by the parties. I looked into this dispute together with three other DNMs in the same hospital. Their dispute being the same, apart from dates of appointments as DNM and overall service.

Firstly, I acknowledge the underlying dissatisfaction for the worker and her colleagues to be assigned to a non-nursing grade. There are issues of professional standing, as a senior nurse. Then there are the practical issues of different terms and conditions and these may become more accentuated as time goes on.

However, I have no alternative but to conclude that this dispute deals with a body of workers and in accordance with section 13 (2) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 this dispute is not properly before me.

IR dispute - collective issue