LCR22649

1.Good Friday Premium.

BACKGROUND:

2.This matter comes before the Labour Court as a referral under S26(1) of the Industrial Relations act 1969. Both Parties have agreed to be bound by the Recommendation of the Labour Court. A Labour Court hearing took place on 16 September 2022. The following is the Recommendation of the Court:



RECOMMENDATION:

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

The original claim of the Trade Union was served following an agreement reached in 2015 between the employer and craft workers. Prior to that agreement, the lock keepers enjoyed identical arrangements to those enjoyed by craft worker colleagues in terms of Good Friday working and annual leave. The craft worker agreement resulted in increased annual leave for craft workers and the loss of an entitlement to premium pay for working on a Good Friday. The lock keepers’ original claim was based on what was seen as the creation of an anomaly. The claim sought the application to lock keepers of the same arrangements as had been agreed to apply to craft workers which amounted to an increase in annual leave and the loss of a premium payment in respect of Good Friday working.

It is clear that, following the claim of the lock keepers, arrangements implemented for lock keepers in 2016 are identical to those agreed in 2015 with craft workers. Since that time, the annual leave of lock keepers is aligned, as it had previously been, with craft workers and arrangements for Good Friday working are similarly aligned in respect of both sets of workers.

Engagements between the parties have been extended and complicated but the claim before the Court is essentially a claim which would once again create an anomaly between lock keepers and craft workers in respect of Good Friday working. It would appear also that the claim if conceded would create an anomaly as between lock keepers and colleagues across the State Industrial sector in terms of Good Friday working.

Emphasis has been placed by the Trade Union on the anticipated conclusion of an agreement in the Local Authority sector in respect of Good Friday working. Arrangements in respect of lock keepers are currently aligned with workers in the Local Authority sector. No evidence has been presented to the Court that any live claim in respect of Good Friday working is in existence in the Local Authority sector or that any engagement has taken place in the sector on the matter for many years.

In all the circumstances, the Court recommends that the Trade Union should accept that its original claim for continuing alignment with craft workers in respect of Good Friday working has been satisfied. However, the employer should accept that the particular history of engagements on this matter in the employment have been complicated and frustrating in equal measure and that, notwithstanding engagement at a number of fora over a number of years, it remains, in the view of the Trade Union, unresolved.

Having regard to all of the circumstances of the history of this matter and the fact that lock keepers are currently aligned with craft workers in the employment and employees across the State industrial section in respect of Good Friday working, the Court does not recommend concession of the claim.

Having regard to the long service of the workers concerned and their obvious commitment to consistently meeting the needs of the public including on Good Fridays however, the Court believes that a gesture towards good industrial relations should be made in order to achieve a resolution to this long-standing dispute.

The Court therefore recommends that the employer should make an ex-gratia payment to each of the 14 claimants in full and final settlement of the dispute. That payment should be in the amount of €1,000 to be paid in as tax efficient manner as relevant revenue rules will permit.

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Kevin Foley
SL	______________________
22 September 2022	Chairman