LCR23017

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Grievances

BACKGROUND:

The Worker referred this case to the Labour Court on 11 January 2024 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 9 July 2024.

RECOMMENDATION:

The trade dispute before the Court relates to a series of grievances raised by the worker. The matter has, in large part, already been the subject of a recommendation by an Adjudication Officer under Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 which was not appealed to this Court.

The Industrial Relations Act, 1969 at Section 13 in relevant part makes provision as follows:

13(9) (a) A party to a dispute in relation to which a rights commissioner has made a recommendation may appeal to the Court against the recommendation and the parties to the dispute shall be bound by the decision of the Court on the appeal.

(b) The Court shall hear and decide any appeal to it under this subsection and it shall convey its decision thereon to the parties.

(c) A hearing under this subsection shall be held in private.

(10) The Court shall not investigate (except by way of appeal to it under subsection (9) of this section) a trade dispute in relation to which a rights commissioner has made a recommendation.

This Court is therefore, by operation of the law, statute barred from entering afresh upon any matter put before an Adjudication Officer as a trade dispute, and in relation to which dispute the Adjudication Officer has made a recommendation, other than as an appeal of that recommendation.

The Court notes that the worker resigned her employment in October 2021. The Court also notes that the matters giving rise to the trade dispute underpinning this referral to the Court under Section 20(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 are, in large part, the same matters which gave rise to a recommendation of an Adjudication Officer.

In the view of the Court, good industrial relations requires parties to exercise common sense, pragmatism and realism. The statutory function of the Court in making a recommendation in relation to a trade dispute is to express an opinion, based on the merits of the trade dispute, as to how it should be resolved.

Having regard to all the circumstances of this trade dispute, the Court recommends that the parties should accept that no opinion of this Court will result in a voluntary agreement being reached by the parties, and consequently should accept that the trade dispute concerning the worker’s former employment should best be regarded as concluded and in the past.

The Court so decides.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Kevin Foley
CC	______________________
17th July 2024	Chairman

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Ceola Cronin, Court Secretary.