The WRC declined to recommend compensation to a nurse who claimed €357,000 over a grading and pay disparity at a hospital. Adjudication Officer Penelope McGrath dated the recommendation on 23 September 2026.
The nurse said she performed the work of a Grade VIII head of bed management from 2007 to 2015 while paid at Grade VII. The hospital said she was appointed as a Grade VII Bed Manager, not to the substantive Head of Bed Management post.
McGrath was not satisfied that the nurse had been appointed to that post. Witnesses could not establish her accountability for the function, and the passage of time made the hospital’s historical management structure difficult to determine. She also found that a grievance should have been raised while the nurse held the role or within a reasonable period afterwards, and that a delay of about ten years was unreasonable.
The adjudicator recommended that both sides regard the matter as concluded. The €357,000 was the nurse’s claim, not an award.