Irish Water under pressure to resolve row over extra pay for meter engineers

IRISH Water chiefs have been told to sort out a row over whether its engineers should be paid an extra €5,000, as well as special site allowances, for supervising workers installing water meters.

It is understood the total liability would be between €125,000 and €150,000 a year – possibly for the next two years.

The dispute is before the Labour Court for the third time and centres around what pay scale engineers on secondment from local authorities should be paid. The court heard the engineers earn €60,000 at present.

Irish Water and engineers’ union Siptu were directed to gather detailed information on how much similar engineers are paid in all the country’s councils in an effort to resolve the issue which has been in dispute for 18 months.

Siptu claims their pay should be based on qualifications – as it said is the case for similar engineers in eight councils it researched.

It said engineers in four councils also receive top-ups based on their experience.

The union also said pay should be determined or at least influenced ‘by the scale and complexity of projects’.

Irish Water claims pay should be related to the level of skill and any extra time required to complete a job rather than qualifications.

Essentially it argues that a role consisting of looking at men in holes fitting meters does not demand the same skills as building a bridge.

Labour Court chairman Kevin Duffy ruled that information on the practice within all 31 authorities in the State was required to determine the matter definitively. He also advised that the parties ‘on the basis of the responses obtained should make a final effort to resolve the dispute. If agreement cannot be reached the parties may refer the matter back to the court’.

Irish Water’s Antoinette Tyrrell said that the company employs 49 field engineers, of which 25 are on secondment from local authorities.

Could cost up to €150,000 per year