LCR22305

1. Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No:ADJ-00021984 CA-00028842-001.

BACKGROUND:

2. The Employee appealed the Adjudication Officer’s Recommendation to the Labour Court on 13 March 2020 in accordance with Section 13(9) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969.

On 14 February 2020 the Adjudication Officer issued the following Recommendation:-

“I recommend the sanction applied is reduced to a 3month verbal warning”.

A Labour Court hearing took place on 1 December 2020.

DECISION :

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

The Claimant had been issued with a verbal warning in 2019 with a lifetime of nine months. The issuance of that warning followed the conduct of an investigation into allegations that he had failed to comply with the conditions attaching to the sick pay scheme in the employment. The issuance of the verbal warning took place in accordance with the provisions of agreements between the employer and the Trade Union representing the Claimant.

The Adjudication Officer recommended that the warning lifetime should be reduced from nine months to three months. The Claimant appealed that decision.

The Court notes that the Claimant has left the employment. The Court also notes that, in accordance with arrangements in place in the employment, the warning has expired through the effluxion of time and has ceased to exist as a record in any manner.

In all of the circumstances, the Court can find no basis to support the erasure of the verbal warning. In any event, the Court notes that a decision to erase an expired warning which has ceased to exist as a record would have no meaning.

The decision of the Adjudication Officer is affirmed

The Court so decides.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Kevin Foley
MK	______________________
2 December 2020	Chairman