Bid to rescue €34m equal pay deal for civil servants from costly court wrangle

EFFORTS are under way to rescue a €34 million equal pay settlement for civil servants before it turns into a High Court wrangle that could cost the State five times as much.

The deal was struck last May between the Department of Finance and the Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU) to avoid a massive compensation claim by the union on behalf of female members who suffered pay discrimination.

But disputes over the details of the deal have delayed its implementation and it is now running out of time.

By this Friday, 90% of 2,200 workers who lodged compensation claims must have submitted signed agreements not to pursue those claims in the courts or the Department will walk away from the settlement.

Neither the Department nor the CPSU would say how many workers had signed up to the deal but the deadline has already been extended by a week.

Even if the quota is reached, however, there are further issues to be thrashed out before the end of this month which is the final cut-off point for the deal going through as the payments must be made in the current year.

One of the issues involves another 4,300 workers who did not lodge compensation claims but were similarly discriminated against and are entitled to share in the €34m settlement.

The Department is concerned that without formal waivers from those workers, it could leave itself open to claims in the future but it is now thought too late to try to get signed agreements with 90% of this larger group.

A further complication involves 2,000 higher grade civil servants represented by the Public Service Executive Union (PSEU) who argue they were unfairly excluded from the deal between the Department and the CPSU.

The urgency of finalising the settlement stems from the risk of massive costs to the taxpayer if the claims are pursued through the courts.

The original claims were made by 26 CPSU members in 1991 on the basis that male civil servants in the old paper-keeper grade were paid more than females at clerical assistant grade doing the same job.

The discrimination, which eventually created a pay gap of €63 per week, only ended in 1997 when both grades were merged into that of clerical officer.

The Equality Tribunal found in favour of the 26 test case workers and the Labour Court awarded them between €5,000 and €35,000 each.

Those decisions cleared the way for 8,500 other workers to make similar claims which could cost the taxpayer over €200m. The Department said if the settlement fell it would go to the High Court to seek to have the original Labour Court awards overturned.