FULL RECOMMENDATION
PARTIES : CLARE COUNTY COUNCIL DIVISION :
SUBJECT: 1.Non-Payment of Fees for Fieldwork in 2020. 2. The Unio request the Court to find in their Member's favour and recommend the Employer pay the Members the sums of monies owing (as per the schedule handed to the Court).
4. 1. The Employer states that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a cessation of all but the most essential of services across the State and the Union Members work has ceased in adherence to public health advice. 2. The Employer states the Union Members are being compensated in accordance with National Agreements and the Employer respectively requests that the Court reject the claim for payment of unworked activity. RECOMMENDATION: The union relies on a 2009 Council/Union agreement which provides that the six officers, all former Revenue Officers, would maintain fieldwork activities until retirement, as long as the Council retained the franchise for collating the elector register data. The union requests that theCourt recommends payment of an amount equivalent to what was paid to the six workers the previous year, as Register numbers remain relatively the same.It cites Storm Ophelia in 2017 and Storm Emma in 2018 as comparable situations where workers were unable to perform their normal duties but were still paid. The Workers in this case are already being compensated in accordance with National Agreements for loss of earning arising from the discontinuation of fieldwork activities. The provision for compensation for loss of earnings is provided for in Public Service Agreements are not applicable to the matter before the Court and concession of the union’s claim would have significant knock-on implications across the public and private sectors. The Court has given careful consideration to the submissions made by parties. The Court notes that the parties have reached an agreement on compensation for loss of earnings arising from the discontinuation of fieldwork in 2021. The outstanding matter in dispute between the parties relates to the period in 2020 when fieldwork ceased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and before a Council decision was taken that fieldwork activities were no longer required. The Union contends that the Council withheld payments due to the six workers. It submits that they should have received payment for work not undertaken, on the basis that they had an expectation that it would occur. The Courtnotes the fieldwork undertaken by the six workers on the register of electors was voluntary and undertaken outside of normal working hours. The work did not form any part of the duties attached to their substantive grade.The Court cannot support the Union’s contention thatthe Council withheld payments due to the six workers in 2020 in circumstanceswhere no work was carried out by the workers concerned. The Union in support of its claim referred to specific examples relating to Storm Ophelia and Storm Emma, where workers who were forced to stay away from work received payments. Those situations were one off weather events and in the Court’s view are not comparable to the ongoing crisis that resulted from the Covid-19 global pandemic. Having regard to all of the circumstances, the Court is of the view that there is no basis to compensate the six workers in this case for work not undertaken. The claim ofcompensation for loss of earningsarising from the non-payment of franchise fees when fieldwork ceased in March 2020 as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic is rejected. The Court so recommends.
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