The civil servants are taking legal action against the minister for public expenditure and the minister for enterprise, tourism and employment, seeking to enforce an arbitration award that would upgrade them from assistant principal to assistant principal higher.

The officers successfully argued before the Civil Service Conciliation and Arbitration Board last November that their roles had changed significantly following a 2021 Supreme Court ruling which altered the administration of WRC cases.

The regrading would increase starting salaries by just over €8,000 a year, rising to about €11,000 with increments.

Although the board ruled in the officers’ favour, it said the parties should agree how the regrading would be implemented.

The Department of Enterprise required approval from the Department of Public Expenditure to implement the recommendation, but that approval was refused.

The Department of Public Expenditure argued the award would increase costs and could not be implemented under the existing public sector pay agreement, saying it would instead have to be funded through the agreement’s local bargaining provisions.

With no resolution reached, the adjudication officers have now sought judicial review of the department’s decision.

The proceedings have been issued in the name of one of the officers, Lefre De Burgh, with no hearing date yet fixed. The officers are represented by O’Mara Geraghty McCourt.