NORTHERN IRELAND
The Northern Ireland Court of Appeal has ruled that police holiday pay dating back 20 years should have taken overtime into account, with the result the Government is facing a £40 million (A$73 million) claim from staff.
In the wake of the ruling, it emerged that the Department of Finance, which sets pay policy for all public sector bodies, is considering how the ruling will affect other workers — potentially costing hundreds of millions of pounds.
The UK Government faced the same issue in 2014 following a similar court ruling.
It led to the introduction of a two-year cap on backdated claims to stem potentially huge bills to employers.
However, the Minister for Employment and Learning at the time, Stephen Farry (pictured), who was also responsible for salary policy decisions for Government Departments, did not put a two-year cap on claims in Northern Ireland.
Mr Farry said he was aware of the UK ruling at the time and had a number of discussions with PS staff regarding the potential implications for Northern Ireland.
He said it was likely that an appeal would be made and “care needs to be taken in speculating on what may be the wider impact in Northern Ireland”.
“It is important to allow that process to run its course,” Mr Farry said.
Belfast, 23 June 2019
