Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

Supervisor

Retailer

Representatives

Jim Fuery Mandate Trade Union

Kevin Feighery IBEC

Act

Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969

IR - SC - 00002301

01/03/2024

The dispute is concerned with changes made to the employees role following a reorganisation of the supervisory role within the company. While the employer would not discuss pay at the hearing- as it is a group issue affecting nine employees. They had taken the approach that individual issues about roles were appropriate for consideration by an adjudication officer under the 1969 Act-Section 13. I want to make it clear that I also consider the matter of pay for the supervisors represented by Mandate on that issue-to be a collective issue related to terms of employment-and therefore not one which can be dealt with or resolved by an Adjudication Officer.

Mandate provided a written submission and responded to the IBEC  submission. Essentially the problem in the matter of the role of the Complainant is that she feels her role was devalued with the removal of certain responsibilities she held previously. These were described to the hearing under the headings of attendance at certain meetings, direct access to an IT system and exclusion from an academy training programme. Other employees were asking about her role and her dignity at work was adversely affected. At the same time the employer had declared that her role as a supervisor was not in scope for redundancy before the changes were implemented.

The employer accepted there were changes in the role under an organisational change but did not accept the role was diminished. The meetings which the employee previously affected were now held company wide and attended by managers. Many of the tasks she previously performed were still within the role of the employee. The removal of floor supervisor duties was a change made throughout the group of supervisors.

Noting the employer was very keen to emphasise the value of the employees role and work within their store I held discussions with the representatives with a view to arriving at an agreed resolution of the dispute. Following discussion with and between the parties, the following is the record an agreement reached:

1.      The employee to attend two committees-environmental health and safety and employee engagement-your voice

2.      The employee will be included in the next P&C activities training for modules on rosters, OWT, managing performance, payroll, recruitment and selection.

3.      At the moment there are no plans for P&C Academy training. These places are allocated on application and the employee will be welcome to apply to participate in any future such training-management also committed to ensuring she is informed of any future programme so that she can apply.

On the basis of the agreement reached-the Union confirmed that the dispute is resolved.

Duties post restructuring  programme.