FULL RECOMMENDATION
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACTS, 1946 TO 1990 SECTION 26(1), INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT, 1990 PARTIES : CAMERON IRELAND LIMITED (REPRESENTED BY IRISH BUSINESS AND EMPLOYERS' CONFEDERATION) - AND - UNITE DIVISION : Chairman: Mr Foley Employer Member: Mr Murphy Worker Member: Mr McCarthy |
1. Redundancy terms and related matters.
BACKGROUND:
2. This dispute could not be resolved at local level and was the subject of a Conciliation Conference under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission. As agreement was not reached, the dispute was referred to the Labour Court on 4 April 2016 in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990.
A Labour Court hearing took place on 24 May 2016.
UNION’S ARGUMENTS:
3. 1. The Union has had no involvement in formulating or agreeing the "established matrix" as the redundancies which it applied to did not involve the Union members at the time.
2. The Company never raised the issue of cost of redundancy as an issue.
3. The Company stated that the selection for compulsory redundancy would be on competency. A range of other issues were however included in the matrix.
COMPANY'S ARGUMENTS:
4. 1. It is essential that this Company is able to retain market share. The Company must remain price competitive and achieve reductions in cost base.
2. The Company must scale back its workforce to meet the market demands.
3. The Company's redundancy package proposal is fair and reasonable in the circumstances.
RECOMMENDATION:
The Court has given detailed consideration to the written and oral submissions of the parties.
The Court understands that forty five people have been made redundant, six persons on a compulsory basis. The Court also understands that the persons who have been made redundant have considerable service with the Company.
In all of the circumstances applying in this case the Court recommends as follows:
•The redundancy terms to apply to all redundancies which have occurred should be statutory entitlement plus two weeks’ pay per year of service. A cap of twenty five years should apply.•In the event of vacancies arising in the future applications received from persons who have been made compulsorily redundant should be given favourable consideration.
•The parties should engage to agree the detail of the matrix which will be applied to the process of selection for compulsory redundancy should that situation arise in the future.
The Court so recommends.
Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
Kevin Foley
CO'R______________________
9th June, 2016Deputy Chairman
NOTE
Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Clodagh O'Reilly, Court Secretary.