The Workplace Relations Commission found occupational health nurse Elizabeth Keywood’s pay complaint against An Garda Siochana not well founded in a decision dated 22 November 2023. Keywood said she was owed pay and allowance increases on the HSE’s CNM2 scale, including claimed backdated increases of €2,160 and allowance increases of €6,018.
An Garda Siochana said Keywood was hired as a civil servant on its Occupational Health Nurse scale, not the CNM2 scale. The adjudicator found her contract and appointment letter placed her at point 3 of the Occupational Health Nurse scale. The adjudicator also noted that recruitment communications, including a 2023 candidate booklet, had added to confusion by referring to CNM2 alongside the role.
The adjudicator said HSE pay and allowances had no legal bearing on those of nurses employed by An Garda Siochana because they were different employers. The complaint concerned whether unpaid increases amounted to an unlawful deduction from Keywood’s wages. The decision rejected that claim under the Payment of Wages Act. It did not award the amounts Keywood claimed; they were figures advanced in her case. The findings also distinguished a possible pay-parity case through industrial relations from a legal entitlement under her employment terms.