Clinic ordered to pay €1,600 over pension terms error

The Workplace Relations Commission awarded Leonard Brennan €1,600 after finding that Central Remedial Clinic Crc failed to properly notify him of a change to his pension arrangements. The decision was dated 23 September 2024. Brennan said his contract stated he would join the Single Public Service Pension Scheme, but he later discovered he had been placed in the Voluntary Hospitals Scheme without consultation or written notice. The clinic said the contract reference was an administrative error and that the law prevented him from joining the public service scheme because his earlier employment gap was under 26 weeks. The adjudicator found that the error had gone uncorrected for too long to count as an accidental clerical mistake and that the change had not been properly explained to Brennan. His complaint under employment-information rules was upheld, and four weeks’ compensation was awarded for breach of a statutory right. The adjudicator also noted that putting Brennan into the scheme he had originally expected to join would have contravened the law.