LCR22915

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Complaint under Section 20(1) of the Industrial Relations Act 1969.

BACKGROUND:

The Worker referred this case 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 on 29 January 2024.

RECOMMENDATION:

This matter comes before the Court as a referral by the worker of a trade dispute which she has with her former employer. A trade dispute is defined in the Act of 1946 as “any dispute or difference between employers and workers”.

The worker has, in accordance with the requirements of Section 20(1) of the Act of 1969, undertaken to accept the Recommendation of the Court. The Court is required by that section to make a Recommendation under Section 68 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946.

Section 68 of that Act makes provision as follows:

68.(1) The Court, having investigated a trade dispute, may make a recommendation setting forth its opinion on the merits of the dispute and the terms on which it should be settled.

The employer in this matter did not attend the hearing of the Court and, consequently, the Court was deprived of any opportunity to explore the matter with it.

It is the case that the worker has, separately, initiated a justiciable complaint against the employer alleging a breach of an employment law statute.

The Court notes that the employment relationship had lasted for only 4.5 months before its termination by reason of dismissal on 20th April 2023.

In the view of the Court, the effective conduct of industrial relations requires both parties to exercise realism, pragmatism and common sense. It is the Court’s assessment that there is no reality to the proposition that the two parties to the within trade dispute will reach a voluntary agreement on the basis of a Recommendation the Court might make. The Court is fortified in that view by the fact that the employment relationship has ended and that the parties are in opposition in a separate justiciable dispute arising under an employment law statute.

In these circumstances the Court recommends that both parties regard their trade dispute as resolved.

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Kevin Foley
CDK	______________________
7 February 2024	Chairman

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Coleen Dunne Kennedy, Court Secretary.