WRC finds nurse’s pension contribution complaint not well founded

The Workplace Relations Commission found Gerard Mooney’s complaint about pension contributions not well founded. The decision was dated 14 February 2024. Mooney, a psychiatric nurse at St Patrick’s University Hospital for 43 years, said the contributions paid on his behalf had been miscalculated after the hospital’s defined benefit pension scheme was wound up. He argued that the calculation should reflect his contractual retirement age of 65 and his 2017 wages. The hospital said it had correctly applied the 2017 agreement used to calculate employees’ contributions. The adjudication officer found that pension payments are excluded from the Payment of Wages Act’s definition of wages. The complaint therefore failed, and the officer did not assess whether the pension calculation itself was correct.