FULL RECOMMENDATION
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACTS, 1946 TO 1990 SECTION 26(1), INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT, 1990 PARTIES : WATERFORD REGIONAL HOSPITAL - AND - UNITE THE UNION DIVISION : Chairman: Mr Duffy Employer Member: Ms Doyle Worker Member: Ms Tanham |
1. Withdrawal of Concession Days.
BACKGROUND:
2. This dispute concerns the withdrawal of concession days for General Operatives. This dispute could not be resolved at local level and was the subject of a Conciliation Conference under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission. As agreement was not reached, the dispute was referred to the Labour Court on the 24th October, 2013, in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990.
A Labour Court hearing took place on the 4th March, 2014.
UNION’S ARGUMENTS:
3. 1. Under the terms of a 1998 Analogue Agreement, general operatives (GOs) received three extra days off in return for specific agreed changes. The GOs have been linked to the craft workers since the commencement of the Analogue Agreement.
2. Up to April 2012 the GOs had twenty days annual leave and three (analogue days). In February 2013 an agreement was reached at the LRC for the standardising of annual leave for craft workers to 25 days.
3. The Union is seeking parity for the GOs with the craft workers as they have been historically linked via the Analogue Agreement since 1997.
EMPLOYER'S ARGUMENTS:
4. 1. It was part of an LRC hearing in 1998 that GOs received an entitlement to three extra days leave a year and not as part of the Analogue Agreement.
2. The GOs are not aligned to craft workers and are in receipt of the correct annual leave associated with their grade.
3. The claim has national implications and is cost increasing which is prohibited under the Public Service Agreement 2010 – 2014 and the Public Service Stability Agreement 2013 – 2016.
RECOMMENDATION:
It is clear that the issues now before the Court involves the interpretation of a national agreement concluded in 1998. That agreement was negotiated between the group of unions representing all non-nursing general operative and related grades and representatives of all health sector employers.
It seems to the Court that it would be inappropriate to address these issues in a case involving one employment in circumstances in which the recommendation of the Court will inevitably apply to the totality of those encompassed by the 1998 agreement.
For that reason the Court recommends that the issue before the Court should not be pursued further in relation to this employment. It is a matter for the union group generally to decide the issue is to be pursued at another level.
Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
Kevin Duffy
CR______________________
14th March, 2014.Chairman
NOTE
Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Ciaran Roche, Court Secretary.