Galway Bay fm newsroom - A dispute concerning the overnight working rate for Galway's homeless services employees has been raised in the Seanad.
The Workplace Relations Commission is to intervene after Impact Trade Union highlighted that staff at Galway Simon Community are providing services through the night for €4.50 per hour – less than half the national minimum wage.
It argues a Labour Court ruling in 2014 recommended that time spent on overnight sleepover duty should be acknowledged as constituting working time, and that workers should be paid the national minimum of €9.25 an hour.
The trade union is to meet the WRC this afternoon at 3 in a bid to progress the campaign.
Padraig Mulligan of Impact says the current rate is simply unfair and the HSE needs to release the required funds to ensure staff receive the minimum hourly rate.
Speaking in the Seanad, Senator Trevor O'Clochartaigh said the government must intervene to ensure the HSE provides Galway Simon with the necessary funds to pay its staff.
In response, Junior Minister Marcella Corcoran Kennedy said Galway's homeless service workers are not HSE employees, and the HSE has no role in determining the salaries or other terms and conditions applying to these staff, including sleepover payments.
However, she says the HSE has informed her that the relevant local Community Healthcare Organisation is examining the financial implications of the sleepover costs.
Sleepovers are now regarded as working time and the HSE, agencies funded under section 38 of the Health Act 2004 and the trade unions are jointly actively working towards designing and implementing rosters which comply with the Directive.
