A case taken by the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA), in which it was argued that a two-tier pay system adopted in October 2012 amounted to age-based discrimination, has been rejected by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
The IHCA had taken a test case under the Employment Equality Act on behalf of 11 members, which was the subject of a protracted series of hearings at the WRC before concluding in September of last year.
Under the terms of the changes made, consultant doctors taking up roles in hospitals after October 1st, 2012, were paid 30 per less than colleagues already in place. A health official who testified at one of the WRC hearings last summer said savings of €481 million had been made as a result of the move.
The association had argued that, as there was an average gap in age of about 10 years between the newly hired consultants and those already working in hospitals, the move amounted to age-based discrimination. The WRC was told the scale of the cut was “uniquely harsh” and that the Government needed to be consistent to be able to justify such measures.
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The Government side contended that the ages of consultants at the time of their hiring were actually what was important and that there was no significant difference in that.
Its legal representatives also argued that the European Court of Justice had previously upheld a two-tier system of pay for primary schoolteachers in a case involving Tomás Horgan and Claire Keegan and that that decision was binding on the commission.
In her decision, sent to the respective parties this week and due for publication in the coming weeks, WRC adjudication officer Orla Jones said she was “satisfied based on the totality of the evidence adduced that the complainants have failed to establish a prima facie case of Indirect discrimination on grounds of age and accordingly I am satisfied that the complainants were not indirectly discriminated against by the respondent on grounds of age in respect of this matter.
“I am also satisfied based on the totality of the evidence adduced that the respondent has fulfilled the obligation placed on it to show that there are ‘grounds other than’ age for the difference in the respective rates of remuneration paid to the complainant and comparator which render the rates of remuneration paid to the complainant and the comparator lawful in accordance with section 29(5) of the Employment Equality Act, 1998-2015.”
The IHCA, which declined to comment on the decision, has written to its members informing them of the outcome. In the letter, the association said it would “assess the decision and its options with its legal team to include consideration of grounds for appeal”. The association has a little over a month to lodge an appeal with the Labour Court.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said it too would consider the decision.
The cuts to rates are understood to have affected the pay of more than 1,200 consultants over the decade that followed their introduction. However, the introduction of the new hospital consultants’ contract in March of last year allowed all of those affected the option of moving up to the newly standardised salary scales which ranged from €217,000 to €261,000.
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