Section 38 and 39 pay increases
Micheál Martin presses the Taoiseach on delayed interim pay increases for section 38 and 39 health and disability organisations. The Taoiseach argues section 38 workers are public servants but section 39 staff are not, and says NGOs and charities must use their block grants to pay staff and maintain services.
With regard to the public service pay element of the programme for Government, the Taoiseach will no doubt be aware that employees of section 38 and 39 organisations, the organisations which provide a range of health and disability services and hospice care throughout the country, are still awaiting the most recent interim pay increases. The Minister said yesterday in the Seanad that these people were not public servants.
There is an extraordinary cop-out going on. I put it to the Taoiseach that he cannot get away with saying to these organisations that while we have these national pay agreements, they must find the money within their existing resources and that no additional allocation is made through the HSE to these bodies. Services will be cut as a result or there will be unnecessary industrial action. I am talking about a range of disability organisations throughout the country. The public would generally be shocked that people working in our hospices and disability organisations are now treated in a separate zone from public servants. It is wrong and the Government should change its tack on it.
Comment on this
The fundamental difference, of course, between people who work for section 38 bodies and section 39 bodies is that people who work for section 38 bodies are public servants. They are employees of something that is recognised as a public body, whereas people who work for section 39 organisations are not employees of the State, but employees of NGOs, charities, religious orders and sometimes even companies. Therefore, their terms and conditions differ from those who are public servants. For example, in the main, they do not have public service pensions, so they are not public servants.
Comment on this
Those NGOs, charities and companies are funded by a block grant and it is up to that body to pay its staff and provide the services out of the total grant it is given. We certainly will not stand over any body - a charity or an NGO - that has had its budget increased, cutting back on services. If that happens they will be called out over it.
Comment on this
That is just a cop-out. It is not an honest response. Come on.