Labour Court does not recommend ambulance technicians’ retrospective pay claim

The Labour Court did not recommend the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union’s claim for retrospective pay adjustments for four Emergency Medical Technicians employed by the HSE National Ambulance Service. The recommendation was signed on 12 March 2014. The union argued the appointments were promotions that qualified for incremental credit under Circular 10/71. The employer said Emergency Medical Technician was an entry-level grade and the circular did not apply. The Court found the grade had become an entry-level position through the benchmarking exercise. It also said the claim involved processing a cost-increasing claim barred by the Public Sector Agreement 2010–2014, so it could not recommend that the union’s claim be conceded.