LCR23066

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Breach of Agreement-Unilateral Removal of 39 Hour Week for New entrants' and a claim for 2 Extra Days A/L

BACKGROUND:

This dispute could not be resolved at local level and was the subject of a Conciliation Conference under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission. As agreement was not reached, the dispute was referred to the Labour Court on 19 September 2023 in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990.       

Labour Court hearings took place on 22 May 2024 and 4 November 2024.            

UNION'S ARGUMENTS.                

1. The company have changed the previously agreed 39 hour working week for new entrants from 2021.   The Union’s members do not accept this position and are seeking reinstatement of the 1996 agreement.                        

2. The additional 2 days annual leave was introduced by the company for all employees receiving 20 days annual leave. The Union’s members receiving 6 days in lieu should receive these days as the 6 days in lieu are in respect of hours worked.  

EMPLOYER'S ARGUMENTS.                        

1. The company accept that those employed before 1 September 2020 retain the leave entitlement of 20 + 6 days annual leave. As per other similar employees with a 26 day leave entitlement, the additional 2 days annual leave arising from the employee cultural survey were not added to this group of employees leave entitlement on the grounds of cost and equity.                          

2. The overall cost of implementing the Union’s request would amount to €300,000.

RECOMMENDATION:

The dispute between the parties relates to a disagreement in relation to a previous agreement whereby SIPTU members are contracted for a 39-hour week but work a 40-hour week and receive 6 additional day leave.   This was a legacy arrangement from the late 1990’s.   The Employers representative submitted that the Workers got paid for the additional hour, but the Union did not accept that.  In 2019 to address rising costs the Employer tried to implement a 40-hour contract with 20 days annual leave for 5 new employees. Following discussions with the Union the Employer agreed to put the 5 workers affected on the legacy terms but understood that they had agreement that all future staff would be employed on a 40-hour week and 20 days annual leave. All staff recruited post September 2020 were contracted for 40 hours a week with 20 days annual leave.

The Union in 2022 submitted a claim for 50 members who had joined since 2020 to receive the additional six days. Neither party could find a copy of the legacy agreement being relied on, but the Union pointed to an extract from a contract that mentioned it.

 Arising from talks in conciliation the employer had increased the starting annual leave to 22 days from 2023 and SIPTU is seeking to have those two extra days applied to all workers including staff on the legacy contracts.  It was their submission that staff on the legacy contracts received six days as time in lieu and not additional annual leave.

SIPTU submitted that they are seeking parity for all workers in terms of the annual leave they receive. At the first scheduled hearing of the Court the parties indicated that they might benefit from additional time for further discussion, and this was facilitated by the Court. At the second hearing the parties made a joint submission.

The Employers proposal was that the six days in dispute would be red circled to the pre-September 2020 employees with no change to their existing arrangement. The Company noting that the 20 days annual leave had been increased for the non-red circled workers in 2023 to 22 days proposed as follows:

 Additional days leave after 5 years’ service bringing the total to 23 days.

A further day’s leave after 10 years’ service bringing the total to 24 days and

 A further day’s leave after 15 years bringing the total to a maximum of 25 days.

The SIPTU position was that they were trying to achieve parity for all staff and that post 2020 employees should receive increases at 2 years interval so that after 8 years all workers would have 26 days annual leave.

They confirmed that their pre 2020 members were looking for increases in annual leave. However, they accepted that if that group were included it would not be a parity claim but a straightforward claim for an increase in leave for all workers.   It was not disputed that the claim that went to the WRC and ended up before the Court was for parity.

 Having considered the submissions of the parties both written and oral the Court is recommending that the red circled staff pre-September 2020 be left as they are but with the option to switch out of the red circled arrangement to the new arrangement if they felt it was more beneficial.

For all staff post 2020 the contractual hours will be a 40-hour week with annual leave for all new entrants being the 2023 level of 22days.

For all post September 2020 workers for the purpose of counting service for the additional annual leave the starting date will be September 2020 or whenever they started work whichever is the later. 

The Court recommends that all staff in that category move to 23 days for the 2025 annual leave year.

 Going forward the annual leave allowance to increase as follows:

After seven 7 years’ service, move to 24 days,

After 10 years’ service move to 25 days

And after 15 years’ service move to 26 days.

For new staff starting after the date of this recommendation the move to 23 days will be after five years’ service.

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Louise O'Donnell
AR	______________________
18th November 2024	Deputy Chairman

NOTE

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