Labour Court rejects HSE (West) worker’s backdated allowance claim

The Labour Court did not recommend that HSE (West) concede an anonymised worker’s claim for a backdated allowance and promotion under the McDonald Agreement. The recommendation was signed on 20 December 2010. The worker said she had performed additional duties without the appropriate allowance and that backdating it would have qualified her for an automatic upgrade. HSE (West) argued that she did not meet the criteria and that the cost-increasing claim was precluded by the Public Service Agreement. The Court found no reason to overturn the earlier decisions refusing retrospective approval. It noted there had been no contemporaneous claim for the allowance, and said the worker was appropriately graded in her current role.