Vol. 200 No. 3
asked the Minister for Health if he will explain why inspectors employed by the Dublin Health Authority have received no increase in salary since June, 1958; and if he is now prepared to grant an increased salary scale retrospective to June, 1958, or to 1st August, 1960 at the latest, since they had not the benefit of the seventh or eighth round of wage increases.
11.
asked the Minister for Health the reason for the delay in giving sanction for the payment to health inspectors employed by the Dublin Health Authority of the increases recommended my the Labour Court in August, 1962.
12.
asked the Minister for Health the date upon which an increase in salary was last granted to Dublin health inspectors; and whether consideration of the application for sanction to pay the increases recommended by the Labour Court will be affected by the Government's White Paper on wages restraint.
13.
asked the Minister for Health if he will state in respect of provincial health inspectors the dates in 1962 upon which he was asked to sanction payment of increases recommended by the Labour Court, the date upon which he gave such sanction, and the date upon which he was asked to sanction increases for Dublin health inspectors.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 13 together.
I assume that the reference in Question No. 10 is to health inspectors.
The remuneration of health inspectors in the service of Dublin Corporation, i.e., in Dublin city, was the subject of a hearing before the Labour Court in April, 1958, and the Court, in May, 1958, recommended the grant of substantially improved scales of salary. The increased salary scales recommended were, with my approval, applied by the Dublin Corporation with effect from 1st June, 1958, to health inspectors employed in their area. Those rates were subsequently applied to all health inspectors on a national basis, including those employed in Dublin county, including the borough of Dún Laoghaire, under the seventh round of salary revisions with effect from 7th September, 1959.
A revised salary scale was offered by the managers at the eighth round stage, with effect from 1st August, 1960, which was the earliest date from which eighth round increases were applied to staffs in the local authority service. This offer was the subject of an application to the Labour Court in relation to health inspectors employed in certain areas outside the Dublin area. The Court, on 30th March, 1962, upheld the offer and recommended its acceptance. By August last, this scale had been applied generally outside the Dublin area, though a few health authorities have not agreed to the degree of retrospection recommended.
The health inspector staff employed by the Dublin Health Authority, including those engaged on duties in the county and in the borough of Dún Laoghaire approached the Labour Court separately, and following a hearing in July, the Court, on 16th August last, issued a recommendation for an improvement for those inspectors in the salary scales offered by the managers. I notified the Dublin Health Authority on 20th instant of my approval to the application to the health inspectors concerned, with effect from 1st August, 1960, of the revised salary scales offered by the manager, which are in line with the basic scale upheld by the Labour Court in March, 1962, and of the increased salary scales recommended by the Court in August, 1962 with effect from the date of that recommendation.
It will thus be apparent that the decision in regard to salaries of the Dublin health inspectorate was not affected in any way by the recent White Paper.
In regard to Question No. 11, I would direct the Deputy's attention to my reply to Deputy Rooney's question on 6th February, 1962.
In regard to the Question No. 13, five applications to the Minister for Health for sanction to increases were received from health authorities between November, 1961, and the 30th March, 1962, on which date the Labour Court recommended acceptance of the offer made by the managers to the staff. These applications, and a further six received in April and early May, 1962, were all sanctioned on 16th May, 1962. Applications from the remaining health authorities, other than Dublin, were received at various dates up to August, 1962. These were all sanctioned within one to nine days of their receipt. The application for sanction in respect of the Dublin health inspectorate was made on 8th September, 1962.
Will the Minister say why the sanction in the case of the Dublin health inspectors was delayed until last week ?
All the others came in and were sanctioned before they came in.
The others were all sanctioned within a month and this one took three or four months.
This one was complicated. There were two awards given on top of each another.
