LCR22589

1.Moving from Residential to Day Service Hours. Update of Contract.

BACKGROUND:

2.On 24 January 2022, the Worker, referred this dispute 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 setting on 5 May 2022.

RECOMMENDATION:

The Worker commenced employment on the 28th July 2014 as a Care Assistant. The Complainant resigned from her position with effect from 25^thJanuary 2022. The Worker’s complaint as set out on the form completed and signed by her was as follows, “moving from residential to day service hours, asked to go to Occupational health a second time even though recommendation was to work in day service. Update of contract and of this being not fully addressed due to stress.”

Summary of Worker’s submission

The Worker informed the Court that she had resigned her position shortly after she had referred the matter to the Court and that she was not really sure what her dispute with the Employer at this stage was or what it was she was looking for the Court to do. She stated that she was not happy that she was not assigned to day services but accepted that due to Covid at the relevant time day services were either closed or significantly reduced. The Worker stated that Occupational Health had recommended that she not do night work and that on one day she was asked twice by two different people if she was available to do night work. The Worker stated that she was unhappy with the way the Employer had handled issues. She confirmed that she had lodged a grievance which had been investigated but not upheld but she had not processed that grievance to the next stage in the grievance procedure.

Summary of Employer’s submission

Following on from an absence Occupational Health recommended that the Worker be facilitated with shorter working days in either a day or residential service. The Worker was facilitated in a residential service on her return to work in July 2019 as there were no vacancies in day services at that time. It is not disputed that during the summer of 2021 the Worker was asked twice on the one day by two different people if she could work a night shift but that was an error. The Worker raised a grievance, and a grievance meeting took place on the 6^thAugust where the Worker was accompanied by her Union representative. The Employer addresses the Worker’s concerns and clarified that the Worker would return to working in day services when that service resumed. The Employer wrote to the Worker and her Union Official on the 11^thAugust 2021 addressing the issues that had been raised and noting their understanding that her issues had been resolved but also advising that if the issues were not resolved that the matter can be referred to the next level. The Employer heard nothing further from the Worker. The Worker resigned her position on the same day she referred the matter to the Labour Court.

Discussion.

The Labour Court is, in the Industrial Relations arena the Court of last resort. In the case to hand the Worker chose not to exhaust the internal procedures prior to referring the case to the WRC and then the Court. In normal circumstances the Court would recommend that the Worker return to the internal grievance procedure to process her complaint. However, as the Worker has now resigned her position there is no merit in doing that.

The Court finds that the Worker’s complaint fails as she did not exhaust the internal grievance process.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Louise O'Donnell
TH	______________________
18 May 2022	Deputy Chairman