Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have looked into the issue because the service does excellent work and we all want to see this resolved. It is my understanding that, following consultation with the Department of Social Protection, the board of the NAS and the Citizens Information Board, CIB, have agreed to implement the Labour Court recommendation in order to address pay divergence and to ensure that staff in the NAS are paid the same as those in comparable grades in other companies under the CIB umbrella. For clarity, my note tells me that the only item that remains is the detail of which grades are to be used as benchmarks for this purpose. Although the union submitted a proposal, the Labour Court did not specify the grades. Both the workers and the CIB agreed to participate in talks led by the former chair of the Labour Court, Kevin Duffy, to agree this detail. As part of these talks, the CIB agreed to be bound by the recommendation of the independent assessment as to the grades that were comparable. Those talks broke down. With regard to the Labour Court recommendation, we just need clarity on that benchmarking issue. I hope that, if everyone engages in good faith, as I am sure the union side will, we can bring this matter to a final conclusion.

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