LCR22508

FULL RECOMMENDATION

SECTION 13(9), INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT, 1969

PARTIES :

SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

- AND -

A WORKER
(REPRESENTED BY SERVICES INDUSTRIAL PROFESSIONAL TECHNICAL UNION)

DIVISION :

SUBJECT:

1. Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No(s). ADJ-00030557, CA-00040868.

BACKGROUND:

2. The Worker appealed the Adjudication Officer’s Recommendation to the Labour Court on 30 August 2021 in accordance with Section 13(9) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969.

On 20 July 2021 the Adjudication Officer issued the following Recommendation:-

“For the reasons stated above I find that I do not have the jurisdiction to investigate the claim.”

A Labour Court hearing took place on 3 December 2021.

DECISION :

This matter comes before the Court as an appeal of a decision of an Adjudication Officer decision made under Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 (the Act). The Adjudication Officer decided that he did not have jurisdiction to investigate the claim.

The worker had previously claimed compensation for very significant losses suffered by him in his employment as a result of the ending of an ‘acting up’ arrangement in which he had been employed for 12 years.

That earlier claim related to specific losses and was heard previously by this Court on appeal from a decision of an Adjudication Officer.

The Court is satisfied that the significant losses at issue before the Court now are the same losses which were the subject of an earlier decision of the Court. The Court is also satisfied that any decision it might give in the matter before the Court, relating as it does to the implementation of a collective agreement which had application to a range of workers, has the potential to affect the pay and terms and conditions of a body of workers.

The Court has regard to the Act at Section 13(2) which provides as follows:

13(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, where a trade dispute (other than a dispute connected with rates of pay of, hours or times of work of, or annual holidays of, a body of workers) exists or is apprehended and involves workers within the meaning of Part VI of the Principal Act, a party to the dispute may refer it to a rights commissioner.

and to Section 13(3) in relevant part which provides as follows:

13(b) A rights commissioner shall not investigate a trade dispute—

(i) if the Court has made a recommendation in relation to the dispute,

In light of these statutory provisions and its conclusion that (a) the claim for compensation for loss of earnings before the Court is, in all practical senses, a claim for compensation for the same losses previously decided upon by the Court, and (b) that any decision of the Court has the potential to affect the pay of a body of workers, the Court concludes that it is statute barred from making a decision in this matter.

The Court so decides.

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Decision should be addressed to Therese Hickey, Court Secretary.