Labour Court varies recommendation to give worker €3,370 annual allowance

The Labour Court varied a Rights Commissioner’s recommendation and decided that a worker at Brothers Of Charity’s Fairlands Child Development Services Centre should receive a €3,370 annual responsibility allowance retrospectively from 1 July 2001. The decision was signed on 6 April 2005. The worker, a Clinical Nurse Manager, Grade 2, headed the Fairlands centre. Her union sought a higher grade, saying she managed the service and had additional responsibilities. Brothers Of Charity argued that Fairlands was smaller than the centre used for comparison and said it had offered a standard acting-up allowance of €1,134 a year. The Court recognised her responsibility for managing education staff and cited the unique circumstances of the case. It did not recommend upgrading her job to the higher grade; instead, it varied the earlier recommendation to provide the annual allowance.