LCR22510

FULL RECOMMENDATION

SECTION 20(1), INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT, 1969

PARTIES :

IRISH BANK RESOLUTION CORPORATION (IN SPECIAL LIQUIDATION)
(REPRESENTED BY A&L GOODBODY)

- AND -

A WORKER

DIVISION :

SUBJECT:

1.Payment of Ex-gratia Redundancy Claim

BACKGROUND:

2.On the 01 October 2020 the Worker referred a claim to the Labour Court, in accordance with Section 20(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969, and agreed to be bound by the Court’s recommendation. A Labour Court hearing took place in a virtual court room on the 25 November 2021.


RECOMMENDATION:

The matter before the Court relates to a claim for payment of enhanced redundancy terms arising from the operation of an enhanced voluntary redundancy scheme in Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) from 2011 until the liquidation of that company in February 2013.

The background to this claim is that the Claimant was employed by Anglo Irish Bank in 2006 until July 2011 when that institution became part of IBRC. Her employment continued with IBRC until February 2013 when that entity was liquidated as a result of an Act of the Oireachtas. At that point the Claimant’s employment, along with the employment of her colleagues, was terminated with immediate effect. The Claimant’s position was made redundant, and she received payment in respect of all of her statutory entitlements arising from that redundancy.

The claimant was one of a number of employees subsequently engaged under a contract of employment by ‘IBRC in Special Liquidation’, an entity created by the 2013 Act, to assist with the wind down of IBRC and the processing of the loan book.

The Claimant resigned her employment with ‘IBRC in Special Liquidation’ in July 2013.

The Claimant submits that she is entitled to receive an enhanced redundancy payment over and above the value of the statutory redundancy payment she received in 2013 upon the termination of her employment with IBRC. She bases her claim on her assessment that IBRC in Special Liquidation has funds available to it to make a payment to her and a commitment given to IBRC employees in 2011 that enhanced redundancy terms would apply for the following five year-period.

The employer rejects the claim and contends that the Claimant has no entitlement to a voluntary redundancy scheme that has not operated since February 2013. Furthermore, the distribution of assets among creditors by a liquidator is prescribed in law and it is not open to it to make any payments where a debt has not been proven or no right or legal entitlement arises.

The Court has given careful consideration to the written and oral submissions of the parties.

In this case the Claimant contends that she had a reasonable expectation to receive an enhanced redundancy payment over and above the value of the redundancy payment she received in 2013 when her employment with IBRC was terminated. She submits that by her assessment IBRC in Special Liquidation has available funds to make such a payment to her and that she should receive such money in preference to certain other creditors of the company in special liquidation.

The employer contends that the Claimant has no legal or contractual entitlement to enhanced terms and in any event that any Recommendation of the Court in the matter can have no effect arising from the legal framework which applies to liquidations.

The Court notes that the claim before it is one of a series of similar referrals submitted by former employees of ‘IBRC in Special Liquidation’ seeking the application of enhanced redundancy terms. As the Court has noted in those cases, it is not for this Court while exercising its jurisdiction under the Industrial Relations Acts to purport to make findings or decisions as regards the correct interpretation or operation of Company Law. The Court must confine itself to consideration of the within trade dispute as a matter of industrial relations.

The Court acknowledges that the termination of the Claimant’s employment, through no fault of her own, gave rise to the payment of redundancy terms which did not meet her expectations and, in the view of the Court, did not respect her years of service to Anglo Irish Bank and later IBRC.
The Court in this case is asked to recommend that enhanced redundancy terms over and above those that were applied to IBRC staff when that entity was liquidated in February 2013 should now be made to the Claimant.

In assessing this claim, the Court must take note of the fact that the Claimant delayed almost eight years before referring her claim to the Court and also of the fact that the payment of statutory entitlements to IBRC staff in 2013 reflected the undisputed operation of the law in respect of a company which was placed in liquidation at that time.

Having regard to the history and all of the circumstances surrounding the matter, the Court is unable to recommend concession of the claim.

The Court so recommends.

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Shane Lyons, Court Secretary.