Some 3,000 clerical staff in the civil service stand to win back-payments worth up to €40 million as the result of an equal-pay case taken by their union writes Padraig Yeates.
The Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU) is also reviewing the possibility of follow-on claims by up to 3,000 more members, which could cost the Exchequer almost as much again. The general secretary of the CPSU, Mr Blair Horan, said the decision "clearly demonstrates that civil service pay structures are still tainted by sex discrimination.
"In our submission to the Benchmarking Body we emphasised the need to examine the gender dimension to pay structures. We will now write to the chairman proposing that the clerical pay structure should be adjusted arising from this case."
The award, made by the Labour Court, stems from a long-running equal-pay case made by 26 former female clerical assistants in the CPSU. They stand to win back pay of up to €25,000, to compensate them for earning about €50 a week less than male paper keepers who performed similar work.
The payments are backdated to 1991, when they initially made their claim, but 3,000 colleagues can claim back pay to 1997, when the CPSU formally lodged claims on their behalf. Both grades, clerical assistant and paper keeper, were abolished in a restructuring deal made between the Department of Finance and the CPSU in 1997.
Both groups were placed on the higher clerical-officer grade, but paper keepers were placed at higher points on the officer grade because of the pay differential. According to the CPSU deputy general secretary, Ms Rosaleen Glacken, who handled the equal-pay claim, the union is now examining whether other CPSU members transferred to the clerical-officer grade at the same time are entitled to be regarded as a result of the Labour Court decision.
If they are, the final cost to the exchequer could well run to over €60 million.
The case owes its origins to the old gender divides in the civil service. Paper keepers were created in 1945 to provide a promotional outlet for Government messengers. Up until 1977, only men could become paper keepers and it remained an overwhelmingly male preserve, even though the duties were very similar to those of clerical assistants.
When the CPSU originally took an equal-pay case, the Labour Court rejected the union claim on the basis that government messengers promoted to paper-keeper level could progress no further and the pay differential was to compensate them for this.
The CPSU appealed the case on the basis that paper keepers could in fact apply for promotion. The Labour Court referred the matter to the High Court, which came down in favour of the CPSU.