Ten psychiatric nurses who sought more than €2,000 each to relocate from Tralee to Listowel in Co Kerry have had their claims rejected by the Labour Court.
The nurses sought compensation for having to make the move to a new high-support hostel, 17 miles from their former base, an acute unit in Tralee.
Their unions, SIPTU and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association, argued that they were entitled to payments of €2,320 each, on the basis of a previous Labour Court recommendation known as the "Castlerea formula".
The unions said this formula was commonly used on a national basis to assess compensation for relocation.
The South Western Health Board, however, said the Castlerea formula was specifically payable only to staff who relocated to facilitate the closure of a parent hospital or the development of community services.
The vast majority of staff who transferred from the acute unit in Tralee to the new service did not qualify under the Castlerea formula for any relocation package, the board said.
It also argued that the majority of the staff now based at Listowel had previously been compensated under various packages and aspects of the Castlerea formula.
The unions, however, said a precedent had been set in the Carlow-Kilkenny area, where additional payments were made to nurses who had already received the Castlerea formula.
It was appropriate that the nurses who had relocated to Listowel receive at least the same payment as their colleagues in Carlow and Kilkenny, they claimed.
In its decision, the Labour Court said the unions had argued that the Castlerea formula, agreed in the early 1990s, had been applied in a flexible way over the years and currently bore no resemblance to the original format.
The health board, however, was adamant the the formula had been applied as originally drafted.
"The court believes the Castlerea formula to be the bedrock for payment of a relocation allowance.
"After considering the written and oral submissions made by the parties, the court does not find that the claimants are entitled to the compensation payments under the Castlerea formula," it said.
