ADJUDICATION OFFICER RECOMMENDATION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00031440
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Anonymised Parties | A General Operative | An Motor-vehicle Repair Company |
Representatives |
|
|
Dispute:
Act | Dispute Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 | CA-00041849-001 | 07/01/2021 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 06/08/2021
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: James Kelly
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Acts 1969 following the referral of the dispute to me by the Director General, I inquired into the dispute and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the dispute.
Background:
The Worker has been employed by the Employer as a General Operative since November 2013. The Worker claims that he raised a number of grievances with his employer from a Health and Safety perspective and he was fobbed off and he has been accused as a troublemaker. The Worker is seeking to have this adjudicated upon by way of a trade dispute in accordance with the provisions of Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 |
Summary of Worker’s Case:
The Worker submits that he had raised matters of a health and safety concern with his employer, and he was not listened to. He said that the Manager Director kept avoiding the issues and the Worker was told it was not his problem and to quit asking about matters that were not his concern. The Worker said that all this resulted in a serious deterioration of the working relationship within the organisation; he was verbally threatened and abused and labelled a troublemaker. The Worker confirmed at the hearing that the matters were only being dealt with now because he had raised the matter with the WRC. |
Summary of Employer’s Case:
The Employer said that the Worker had raised a number of grievances and it had employed a HR consultant to deal with them formally. The process was ongoing and not near complete. |
Findings and Conclusions:
This dispute was referred to the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 on the 7 January 2021. The parties confirmed at the oral hearing on 6 August 2021 that they were still engaging in the internal grievance procedures in relation to this dispute. In the circumstances, I informed the parties that I could not adjudicate on this matter until they had fully exhausted the internal grievance procedures. This was in keeping with the well-established principle applied by both the Workplace Relations Commission and the Labour Court that they do not intervene in a dispute under Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 until all internal grievance procedures have been fully exhausted. In the circumstances, I recommend that the parties should conclude and fully exhaust the internal grievance procedures in relation to this dispute prior to seeking to have the matter adjudicated upon under the provisions of Section 13 of the Act. |
Recommendation:
Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 requires that I make a recommendation in relation to the dispute.
I recommend that the parties should conclude and fully exhaust the internal grievance procedures in relation to this dispute prior to seeking to have the matter adjudicated upon under the provisions of Section 13 of the Act. |
Dated: 16th August 2021
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: James Kelly
Key Words:
Industrial Relations Acts – Trade Dispute – Internal Procedure not Exhausted |