Low-paid Rehab staff face 10% pay cut

Frontline staff at a Rehab subsidiary which is paying nine top-level managers a total of €903,000 a year have been told to accept significant pay cuts to make the division more “competitive”.

Documents seen by the Irish Examiner show that the under-fire charity is attempting to impose the cuts at the National Learning Network, whose frontline staff earn an average of €30,000 a year.

Under the proposals, which Rehab bosses first put forward in February 2013 and resurrected last month, new staff at the network — which provides training and support for people struggling to find work — will come in on pay rates 10% lower than current levels.

Existing workers have also been asked to accept a three-year pay freeze, while resource teachers have been told they face a “review of terms and conditions” as Department of Education funding does not cover the full cost of their salaries.

Siptu officials are understood to have told Rehab bosses the changes are unacceptable due to “the controversy over the remuneration situation in the highest echelons of management, and an acute lack of any credible financial data”.

In addition, they pointed to data revealed by State training authority Solas at the weekend, which shows nine senior managers at the network — who are unlikely to be affected by the pay changes — are currently receiving a combined €903,000 a year.

Their identities cannot be revealed due to data protection laws, despite the fact that the taxpayer pays 64% — or €595,427 — of the amount.

The situation is the latest controversy to hit Rehab since it emerged that chief executive Angela Kerins is on a €240,000 basic pay packet, rising to €272,000 a year when car and pension allowances are included. She is also entitled to a bonus of up to 35% of her salary.

The group — which insists it is a company, despite receiving €83m a year from the State, having charitable status, and not paying corporation tax or DIRT — will come before the Dáil’s public accounts committee on April 10.

A Rehab spokesman said the National Learning Network has “commenced a consultation process with staff to review ways of ensuring future competitiveness and increasing efficiency within the company”.

He said the move “also involves reviewing the current job profiles in order to meet the needs of a changing delivery model”, and has been put forward to help the network “compete for business in a changing environment”.

The spokesman said none of the proposals nor a timeframe for their implementation have been agreed. He added that, to date, there has been no clarity on whether the pay cuts will affect management levels within the company, or be confined to frontline staff.