Since the establishment of Tusla in 2014, the Agency has funded many organisations, mostly in the community and voluntary sector, to deliver services on its behalf under sections 56 to 59 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013. These organisations operate independently of Tusla and are responsible for the recruitment of their employees and the terms and conditions under which they are employed. The remuneration of these staff is a matter for these organisations as employers.
Each organisation funded under these arrangements operate independently of Tusla. Each is responsible for the recruitment of employees and the terms and conditions under which individuals are employed. Section 56(14) of the Act of 2013 stipulates that ‘an arrangement under this section shall not give rise to an employment relationship between a service provider, its employees or agents on the one hand and the Agency on the other’.
Prior to the establishment of Tusla in 2014 some of the organisations now funded under section 56 were funded by the HSE under section 39 of the Health Act 2004. In October 2018 the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) reached agreement between the Department of Health and HSE and trade unions representing staff in certain section 39 organisations. Pay restoration in relation to organisations funded through section 39 was applied to organisations who met certain specific criteria.
The criteria related to the organisations rather than types of individual workers that are employed in them. The criteria included only organisations who received in excess of an agreed, specified amount from the HSE by way of the Service Level Agreement process. Pay restoration was limited and solely applicable to those organisations included in the initial WRC agreement. This process has reached a final resolution and there is no scope to revisit eligibility criteria.
Tusla remains in close contact with service providers directly or through service level agreements allowing for key concerns to be raised and discussed appropriately
