EDA2430

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No's: ADJ-00039440 (CA-00051065-001)

BACKGROUND:

The Worker appealed the decision of the WRC Adjudication Officer under Section 83 (1), Employment Equality Acts, 1998 to 2015 on 21 September 2023. A Labour Court hearing took place on 24 July 2024.

The following is the Determination of the Court.

DETERMINATION:

This is an appeal by Ms Desmond the Complainant, against Adjudication Officer Decision ADJ-00039440 -CA-00051065-00 in a claim under section 86 of the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015 (the Acts),  that a collective agreement contained  a provision  that was discriminatory.  The Adjudication Officer did not uphold the complaint. This complaint is linked to ADE/23/106.

Background.

The Complainant submits that a collective agreement entered into in May 2017 contained a discriminatory clause. The Respondent submitted that the agreement the Complainant was referring to was not a collective agreement. The Respondent submitted that there were two preliminary issues that were capable of disposing of the case and asked that the Court deal with the preliminary issues first. The Complainant raised no objection to proceeding on that basis.. As the Complainant was a lay litigant, the Court took a number of breaks during the course of the hearing to allow the Complainant to consider her response to issues that arose.  The complaint was lodged with the WRC on the 9th June 2022 so the cognisable period for the purpose of the Act is 10th December 2021 to 9th June 2022. A case management conference was held on 20th February 2024 and a hearing was held on 24th July 2024.

 Preliminary issues.

  The Complainant confirmed to the Court that the collective agreement she was referring to was contained in the correspondence of May and June 2017 between the HSE and her Union. She confirmed that the agreement only applied to her and that she believed it was a collective agreement because in one of the letters the Respondent refers to it as a collective agreement. The complainant confirmed that she had not looked at the definition of collective agreement as set out at section 2 of the Act.

 The Respondent submitted that the agreement the Complainant was seeking to rely on was not a collective agreement as defined by the act and predated the cognisable period by a number of years.

Decision

 Section 2 of the act defines a collective agreement as meaning an agreement between an employer and a body or bodies representative of the employees to which the agreement relates. In this case the agreement only relates to one employee i.e the Complainant and therefore does not fall within the definition of collective agreement as set out in the Act. On that basis the Complainants complaint must fail.

The appeal fails. The decision of the Adjudication Officer is upheld

 The Court so determines.   

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Louise O'Donnell
AR	______________________
15 August 2024	Deputy Chairman

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Determination should be addressed to Aidan Ralph, Court Secretary.