NIPSA call on NI Executive to right a wrong MEMBERS of Northern Ireland’s largest trade union, the Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA) will be attending a protest at Parliament Buildings, Stormont on Monday 24 June at 12.30pm. The staff who are employees of the NI Policing Board and the Department of Justice have been denied the full benefit of an equal pay agreement negotiated in the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) by NIPSA in 2009. The agreement settled equal pay claims lodged at industrial tribunal by NIPSA on behalf of thousands of low paid female civil servants. This particular group of staff were, prior to devolution, NI civil servants, seconded to areas under the control of the former Northern Ireland Office. NIPSA Assistant General Secretary, Kieran Bannon said: “Our members working in areas previously under the control of the NIO were NI civil servants, yet have been denied the full terms of the equal pay settlement that their NI Civil Service colleagues working in a NICS Department benefited from. "NIPSA has been campaigning on this issue since 2009 when the settlement was reached. It relates to female employees who for decades suffered from unequal pay but these staff, now employees of the NI Policing Board and the Department of Justice, have not had the full terms of settlement applied. “That means these low paid workers continue to be paid less than their colleagues working in a NICS Department who did benefit from the settlement. “We are now left with the ridiculous situation that many of these disadvantaged staff are working alongside others in the same grade who have been paid in full.” At a recent Assembly debate on 4 June a Private Members motion was put forward by Mr Ian McCrea (MLA) calling on the Justice Minister to address the equal pay concerns of these civil servants as a matter of priority. Mr Bannon stated: “Four of the main political parties, in the 4 June debate, supported the motion with MLA’s talking of commitments to equality of treatment, fairness, natural justice and addressing moral obligations to reflect a positive resolution. “NIPSA has for the past three years called on the NI Executive to address this unfairness. “NIPSA has also presented evidence to the Finance and Personnel and Justice Committees of the Assembly. These Committees support the call for positive resolution and so too the majority of political parties and MLA’s. “Given this high level of support, surely it is time to right what everyone has recognised and acknowledge is an injustice.”
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 15:43:46 +0000