Labour Court recommends talks on Tusla job-evaluation scheme

The Labour Court has recommended that Tusla Child And Family Agency and approximately 1,000 clerical/admin grade staff represented by Fórsa discuss whether job evaluation is operationally needed and how a scheme could operate on a cost-neutral basis. The recommendation is dated 24 May 2024. The union said Tusla breached a 2013 agreement by failing to restore a scheme that transferred with staff from the HSE. It argued that reactivating the existing arrangement was not a cost-increasing claim. Tusla said restoring it would conflict with the Building Momentum agreement and required government sanction. The Court found that the 2013 agreement incorporated the suspended HSE arrangements, but said it did not know how necessary job evaluation was in Tusla or how often the employer's process for concerns about work assigned below grade had been used. It recommended talks to assess operational need, use of that process and potential costs, while keeping any scheme cost-neutral. The parties should then seek agreement at the WRC; if they cannot agree, the dispute may return to the Labour Court within three months. The Court also recommended suspending any related industrial action during that process.