FULL RECOMMENDATION
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACTS, 1946 TO 1990 SECTION 26(1), INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT, 1990 PARTIES : TOTE IRELAND LIMITED (REPRESENTED BY IRISH BUSINESS AND EMPLOYERS' CONFEDERATION) - AND - SERVICES INDUSTRIAL PROFESSIONAL TECHNICAL UNION DIVISION : Chairman: Mr Duffy Employer Member: Mr Murphy Worker Member: Mr Nash |
1. Hearing arising from LCR19584.
BACKGROUND:
2. The case was previously before the Court in July, 2009, and concerns a proposal by the Company to make five workers redundant. LCR19584 recommended that the parties should agree in principle to a redundancy package or, as an alternative, an arrangement whereby the workers would relinquish their current conditions in return for a compensatory package and a guaranteed level of work on new conditions. Despite two meetings between the parties agreement could not be reached. The Company had offered redundancy package of 4.5 weeks' pay per year of service with the option of joining regional staffing pools following redundancy but with no guarantee in terms of a minimum number of days' work. The Company had also offered a compensation package of €18,000 with the following guaranteed number of days per annum as per the other 600 staff at supervisory daily rates of pay:-
- year 1 at 100 days
- year 2 at 80 days
- year 3 at 60 days
- year 4 - defaulting to pure regional staff terms of employment.
The Union rejected the offer and the dispute was referred back to the Court on the 28th August, 2009. A Labour Court hearing took place on the 12th November, 2009.
UNION'S ARGUMENTS:
3. 1. The Union indicated a preference for reducing the number of guaranteed days to 150 per annum (from 190) with a provision to supplement through additional days at the casual rate but management rejected any alternative formulae.
2. The Company's compensation package would see the five workers lose €10,000 basic pay in year 1, €30,000 in year 2 and more than €30,000 in year 3. This would leave the workers in a position of receiving so little pay that they could not survive.
COMPANY'S ARGUMENTS:
4. 1. The key issue for the Company remains the need to effect cost savings due to the Tote's on-course business being heavily loss-making.The Union's offer to reduce the number of days to 150, but remaining on their existing terms and conditions and with guaranteed other days, would have resulted in cost savings of less than 10% to the Company.
2. Following the Court hearing in July, 2009, the Company increased its offer but it was rejected. The fact remains that the five positions are redundant.
RECOMMENDATION:
The Court recommends that the dispute be resolved on the following basis:-
- 1. A voluntary redundancy package should be put in place comprising 6.5 weeks' pay per year of service inclusive of statutory terms. Those accepting this option should be provided with work as part of the regional workforce but without guarantees as to the amount of work to be made available on the negotiated supervisory rates applicable to the other 600 staff.
2. As an alternative to the package referred to at 1 above, a severance package of 4.5 weeks' pay per year of service inclusive of statutory terms should be made available. Those accepting this option should be guaranteed work, on the negotiated supervisory rates applicable to the other 600 staff, as follows:-- Year 1 - 125 days
Year 2 - 100 days
Year 3 - 75 days
Year 4 and subsequent years - 55 days
- Year 1 - 125 days
Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
Kevin Duffy
23rd November, 2009.______________________
CON.Chairman
NOTE
Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Ciaran O'Neill, Court Secretary.