Labour Court upholds pay-scale recommendation for worker at Royal College of Surgeons Ireland

The Labour Court upheld a Rights Commissioner’s recommendation that a worker at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (Rcsi) be moved to the Type B* pay scale under a 2009 agreement. It disallowed RCSI’s appeal in a decision signed on 20 May 2010. The worker, represented by the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union, was the subject of a dispute over her grade and pay scale. The union said she remained a Grade 4 secretary and should be assimilated to the B* scale. RCSI said she had worked in a Grade 3 secretary role since 2001 and was correctly paid under the agreement. The Court found that unique circumstances in the worker’s assignment to a Grade 3 post justified the recommendation. It upheld it on the strict condition that it not be relied on in support of similar claims.