A strike by workers at Northside Home Care Services (NHCS) in Dublin has been “stood down” after the Labour Court recommended the union allow a pay review by the employer to proceed. The Irish Workers Union had sought pay increases in line with the 9.25 per cent agreed between Government departments and unions and intended to apply to about 50,000 employees of organisations, many of them charities, providing social and healthcare services on behalf of the State.The dispute, which had been ongoing since January and involved seven work stoppages by staff who provide care to adults with disabilities and older people in their homes, highlighted the fact that a significant portion of the workers who believed they would be covered by the national deal were subsequently excluded as the Health Service Executive (HSE) and other agencies said contracts that had been won after a tendering process could not be revisited.The decision caused widespread issues among both employers and their workforces, some of whom found themselves being treated and paid differently to colleagues doing the same work but under different funding arrangements with a department or agency, often the HSE or Tusla.In the case of NHCS, which employs about 100 carers and which is funded by the HSE to operate tendered services, the Labour Court suggested the key issue was the exclusion of the union’s members from the national deal. It said it had no authority to get involved in that as it was not a dispute between workers and their employer.It noted that while 5.25 per cent of the national deal had been scheduled to be paid by the end of 2025, NHCS had paid its staff increases totalling 6 per cent during the same period. The union argued there had been no movement on pay for 2026, however, and the employer had refused to engage with it, saying it did not formally recognise any trade union.In its submissions, NHCS said it had sought additional funding from the HSE and Department of Health but without success. It said it intended to hold a pay review for 2026, but the outcome would be “contingent on funding stability and operational capacity”. The issues raised by the union, it contended, required policy and funding responses at national level. In a decision signed by Labour Court chairwoman Louise O’Donnell, the court recommended the union stand down its industrial action and the employer proceed with the pay review.On Thursday, the union said its members were awaiting the pay review and that, while it had agreed to be bound by the Labour Court recommendation, it “reserved the right to take industrial action again if satisfactory progress is not made on the issue”.A majority of the care workers employed by NHCS are said to be currently on basic pay of €15.04 per hour. The employer’s chief executive, Eamonn Dunne, has since sent a memo to staff telling them the pay review would be carried out “in the coming weeks” by NHCS management.Separately, he told them NHCS would bring in an independent party to help facilitate “healing and restoration following the challenging period we have experienced since the beginning of the year”.The dispute at NHCS is one of many instances across the voluntary and healthcare services sector in which the pay agreement struck in April 2025, and intended to mirror significant elements of the last public sector pay agreement, has resulted in confusion and disquiet.The results of a large-scale survey intended to help assess these issues are almost six months overdue.