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The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, and Minister of State with Responsibility for Disability, Anne Rabbitte TD, has welcomed the agreement reached at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on 9 December in relation to pay restoration for people working in 250 voluntary health and social service providers.
The payment arrangement for these Section 39 organisations will consist of three phases, with the first two payments to be made in 2021. It follows an agreement reached at the WRC in October 2018, which provided for pay restoration in relation to 50 Section 39 organisations in the first instance.
Minister Donnelly said:
"I am glad to see that agreement has been reached on this important issue. During this global pandemic, these services and their employees have stepped up and displayed dedication and resilience in the way they have supported the people they care for. Working with Minister Rabbitte, I secured funding for this agreement through Budget 2021, and it is great to see it coming to fruition."
He added:
"I would like to thank the services of the Workplace Relations Commission for their assistance in bringing this issue to a resolution. The WRC were instrumental in helping reach this solution."
Minister Rabbitte also welcomed the announcement saying:
"I welcome the news that agreement has been reached on this issue. I fully appreciate that the services provided by these organisations, on a daily basis, provide vital support to our more vulnerable members of society. This has been a challenging year for us all, but these services and its employees, in particular, have really shown us that we have employees who are compassionate about the work they do and the people they care for."
Minister Rabbitte concluded:
"Both Minister Donnelly and I ensured funding was set aside in Budget 2021 to support this agreement. I've long called for a pay restoration deal to recognise the hard work of these remaining Section 39 organisations so it’s great to finally get this over the line."
ENDS
The HSE provides specialist disability services to over 56,000 people, with a budget of €2.2 billion in 2021. Section 39 organisations make up a substantial portion of the disability services sector and receive approximately 29% of the overall HSE budget for specialist disability services.
The 2018 agreement resulted in pay restoration for the first 50 bodies commencing in April 2019 with further payments due in October 2020 and October 2021 as appropriate. This process will result in approximately half of the eligible section 39 employees having their pay fully restored by 2021.
The agreement recognised that some of the remaining Section 39 organisations were also likely to have pay restoration issues and a process to address these issues commenced in 2019 under the auspices of the WRC.