Longford disability centre will benefit from new pay agreement proposals which can bring 'pay parity'

A set of proposals to resolve a long-running pay dispute in the community and voluntary sector has been agreed at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and it is a positive step for St Christopher's Services.

That is the view of CEO Declan Kenny who stated the proposals can remove the disparity that led to previous problems and bring back more parity of pay and certainty.

Unions and Government representatives met for several hours on Monday and an agreement was reached on the proposals which include a 9.25% pay increase over two years, from October 2024 to October 2026.

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A pledge was also made to include community and voluntary sector workers in future public sector pay agreements.

The CEO of St Christopher's Declan Kenny said the WRC talks and the agreement on Monday will impact the Longford disability centre as a Section 39 organisation.

"I understand the trade unions will be balloting members across all impacted organisations soon on that (the proposed 9.25% pay increase).

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"For me the positive here is that the Government has agreed to include the voluntary sector, which includes St Christopher's in future public sector pay agreements which was basically the root cause of the issues here in that there was no disparity here between workers in Section 39 organisations like St Christopher's and workers doing the same role in the HSE.

"This should ultimately remove that disparity and bring back more parity of pay for people doing the same work which can only be a positive," he added.

Longford Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy has highlighted the concerns of workers and the need to put pay agreements in place during the lifetime of the Government in recent weeks.

"I have been pushing for it and it was put into the programme for government so that we would work through the various mechanisms to get pay parity.

"This is the first step of that since the government has been formed where an agreement has been reached for a two year (pay increase) term and I would expect that more talks will take place on further agreements with another increase post October 2026," he added.

St Christopher's staff had been previously holding a work-to-rule over a long-running dispute with a major issue the non-payment of increments promised under a previous pay agreement.

In December, following weeks of industrial action, staff at the Longford disability centre voted overwhelmingly in favour of a new pay deal.

While the dispute over the payment of increments is a separate matter, Deputy Carrigy believes putting a pay agreement in place will benefit St Christopher's and all community and voluntary sector workers.

"It's a fantastic organisation in our community providing a fantastic service to families throughout the county and further afield and it's only right that their pay scales are brought up further to match those that are employed within the HSE.

"It's an encouraging first step that the unions have agreed with what has been put on the table so far," he concluded.