WRC talks on community and voluntary sector pay to be attended Unions

by HRHQ Editorial Team

Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) talks on 17 April aimed at resolving a dispute over pay in the community and voluntary health and care sector will be attended by the INMO, SIPTU and Fórsa trade unions.

The unions served fresh pay claims on a number of employers in the sector last week.

Health and social care professionals employed in agencies funded by the HSE are paid significantly less than equivalent workers employed directly by the HSE and other state bodies according to the Unions.

The WRC meeting will mark the commencement of conciliation talks on the long-standing problem of pay terms for staff working in HSE-funded agencies providing health and care services.

Until 2008, workers in these agencies received pay increases under national wage agreements. At the onset of the financial crisis they were subject to FEMPI pay cuts in line with the same cuts applied to public sector pay.

Limited pay restoration measures were eventually won by unions in 2019 but pay in these agencies remains significantly behind, and no formal mechanism for collective pay bargaining exists for workers in the sector.