Written answers

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Department of Health

Health Services Staff Remuneration

Photo of Michael KittMichael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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455. To ask the Minister for Health when a payment known as twilight premium will be made to social care workers and leaders in Brothers of Charity Services and Ability West; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that €7.5 million is owed in unpaid wages and that arrears were paid to agencies in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12872/15]

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The issue raised in this particular case relates to the payment of a premium of Time + 1/6thin respect of hours worked post 8 p.m. in the evening, until the end of shift. The matter has been the subject of conciliation conferences under the aegis of the LRC in October and November 2014 and most recently on March 3 2015.

The staff concerned are employed by Brothers of Charity in Galway and Roscommon, and the Ability West Organisation, which is primarily based in Galway.

At the LRC conciliation conference, held on November 27 2014, the HSE gave a commitment to actively pursue the matter of providing resources to the agencies concerned, in the context of the 2015 estimates process, to enable payment of the premium to be commenced from 1 January 2015. This has occurred and payment of the “twilight premium” has been commenced since 1 January in the agencies concerned.

There remains a continuing issue of retrospective payment which is being pursued by IMPACT and was the subject matter of the latest LRC engagement on March 3. The HSE indicated that it was not in a position to consider any retrospective payments at this time and advised that it has engaged in a broader national process to determine the overall extent of issues relating to non application of “Twilight Premiums” in section 38 and 39 agencies throughout the country.

It is expected that this process will be finalised by April 17 and the HSE, together with the employers directly involved in Galway and Roscommon, have indicated a willingness to return to the LRC at that stage.

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