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LCR22302

FULL RECOMMENDATION


CD/20/253
CCc-165045-20
RECOMMENDATION NO. LCR22302

SECTION 26(1), INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT, 1990


PARTIES :
LIEBHERR CRANES
(REPRESENTED BY IRISH BUSINESS AND EMPLOYERS' CONFEDERATION)

- AND -

50 WORKERS
(REPRESENTED BY CONNECT TRADE UNION)



DIVISION :

Chairman: Mr Haugh
Employer Member: Mr Marie
Worker Member: Ms Tanham

SUBJECT:

1. Interpretation of Company / Union Agreement On Annual Bonus.

BACKGROUND:

2. This dispute could not be resolved at local level and was the subject of Conciliation Conferences under the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission. As agreement was not reached, the dispute was referred to the Labour Court on 29 September 2020 in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990. A Labour Court hearing took place on 13 November 2020.

UNION’S ARGUMENTS:

  • 1. The ceiling for the electrical group bonus was historically capped at 35% of salary.
    2. The companies bonus structure has no bonus with a ceiling of 31% of salary.
    3. The members are seeking the implementation of the bonus transfer at 35% of salary, as per the expectations which were in place and reinforced by the company prior to and after the members acceptance of the WRC recovery plan.

COMPANY’S ARGUMENTS:
  • 1. The electrical group have always chosen to be treated as a single group for the purposes of bonus payment, an agreement which goes back over 30 years.
    2. This agreement created a bonus system within a bonus system, whereby ‘full bonus’ would inevitably and systematically fall below 35%.
    3. To say that due to the interpretation of one group as to what they believe should be their bonus is correct, would cause an untenable situation within other sections of the site.

RECOMMENDATION :

Background to the Dispute
Liebherr Container Cranes (‘the Company’) along with SIPTU and Connect reached agreement in 2019 on a Recovery Plan to restore profitability at the Killarney-based plant. That agreement provided for a range of work-practice changes and the incremental transfer of bonus payments to basic pay.

The within dispute concerns the interpretation and application of a single phrase in that Agreement as it applies to approximately fifty electricians represented by Connect : “bonus is guaranteed at 100% (cost neutral) …”.

The Union submits that its Members’ bonus was historically capped at 35% of salary. The Union, therefore submits that the correct interpretation of the above sentence is that it provides for a bonus transfer of 35% to its Members.

The Company submits that for some thirty years, two groups of electricians on site have been treated, by agreement, as a single group for bonus purposes. A consequence of that arrangement is that full bonus of 35% could never be achieved in practice. The Company submitted a review of bonuses paid to the Electricians group over a six-year period which demonstrates that the maximum bonus payment achieved in the period was 33.2% with the average payment being 30.65%. On this basis, the Company submits that the amalgamated payment due to Electricians under the Recovery Plan should be 131% of basic pay.

Recommendation
Having considered both the Union’s and the Company’s submissions, in light of the disputed wording in the 2019 Agreement, the Court recommends that the Workers represented by Connect should receive a bonus transfer of 33%.

The Court so recommends.

Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
Alan Haugh
OC ______________________
30 November 2020 Deputy Chairman


NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Orla Collender, Court Secretary.