Labour Court recommends committee review of intellectual disability pay dispute

In 2002, the Labour Court recommended that a joint committee examine the roles of intellectual disability workers after a pay dispute between the Health Service Employers' Agency (Hsea) and the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union. The union sought to apply Circular 39/2001 to houseparents and assistant houseparents in the intellectual disability sector, while maintaining care assistants' pay relationship with assistant houseparents. Management argued the child care agreement applied only to the child care sector and that an extension claim belonged in the benchmarking process. The Court said the dispute arose from child care restructuring and recommended that the union await the committee's review of whether the same professionalisation process was appropriate for intellectual disability workers. The parties could return to the Court for a definitive recommendation if they could not agree. The recommendation was signed on 1 February 2002.