Labour Court recommends €2,500 settlement of midwives’ allowance claim

The Labour Court recommended that Rotunda Hospital pay €2,500 in compensation to settle Inmo’s claim for backdated subsistence allowance for community midwives. The recommendation was signed on 24 October 2017. Inmo sought arrears back to 2005, arguing community midwives should receive the allowance on the same basis as public health nurses. Rotunda Hospital said it could not meet the claim for arrears to 2005 and offered six months of arrears. The Court said the dispute before it concerned only how far back arrears should run. It noted the claim was lodged in March 2015 and that both sides said suitable records had not been kept, making arrears difficult to calculate. The parties had agreed that the allowance would be paid going forward from 1 September 2017.