Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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163. To ask the Minister for Health if clarity will be provided on the pay restoration in section 39 workplaces (details supplied); and if those workers excluded from this process will be included in the new process during the second round of discussions which begin in May 2021. [21015/21]

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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176. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to ensure issues (details supplied) regarding section 39 pay restoration are addressed. [21024/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 163 and 176 together.

In October 2018, an agreement was reached by the parties at the Workplace Relations Commission in relation to a process of pay restoration for staff employed in a pilot group of 50 section 39 organisations who are funded by way of a Service Level Agreement (SLA). A further WRC agreement followed in December 2020 in relation to a final phase of 250 SLA funded organisations who were identified as part of the earlier agreement.

The objective of the pay restoration exercise is to restore pay reductions made to those eligible employees at a certain point in time. It is not an exercise to facilitate pay progression.

Only organisations who received in excess of an agreed, specified amount from the HSE by way of the Service Level Agreement process were included in this section 39 pay restoration exercise. Grant aid organisations were not included in this process. Pay restoration is absolutely limited and only applicable to those included in the WRC agreement.

I can confirm that there is no scope to revisit the eligibility criteria for the process. Any further discussion will relate solely to those organisations identified in the WRC agreement.