LCR23023

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No's: ADJ-00048732 (CA-00059977 IR-SC-00001978)

BACKGROUND:

The Worker appealed the Adjudication Officer’s Recommendation to the Labour Court on 29 April 2024 in accordance with Section 13(9) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969.

On 20 March 2024 the Adjudication Officer issued the following Recommendation.

“Section 13 of the Industrial Relations act 1969 requires that I make a recommendation in relation to the dispute. I recommend that the Employer makes a payment of €6065 to the Worker as a full and final settlement of this claim.”

A Labour Court hearing took place on 1 August 2024.

DECISION:

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

The worker seeks payment for hours worked between 2011 and 2017. He raised a grievance in relation to these matters in 2022 and made the within referral in late 2023. The worker’s employment terminated in mid-2024.

The employer submits that the worker was paid in accordance with the terms of his signed 2011 contract of employment and his working hours accorded with the hours set out in that contract also.

There is no dispute between the parties that the worker was made fully aware of the grievance and other procedures in place in the employment upon his recruitment in 2011.

The extensive delay in raising any issue in relation to his hours of work and rate of pay is, in the view of the Court, entirely the responsibility of the worker. It was for him at any time since 2011, utilising the relevant procedures in place in the employment, to raise any issue he had with regard to the terms of his contract of employment or with his employment generally.

The Court notes that when the worker did, in 2022, engage the grievance procedure in the employment, the employer failed to adhere fully to the entirety of that procedure in that the final internal phase of the procedure was not carried out in the manner specified in the procedure itself.

The Court notes that the employer expressed a willingness before the Court to make a payment of €6,000 approximately to the worker to achieve a full and final settlement of the within trade dispute. The Court believes that this offer is a fair and reasonable attempt to resolve this matter.

The Court therefore recommends that, in the interest of good industrial relations, the employer should pay to the worker the sum of €6,000 in full and final settlement of the within dispute.

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Kevin Foley
AR	______________________
6 August 2024	Chairman

NOTE

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