LCR22388

1. Appeal Of Adjudication Officer Decision No. ADJ-00017212 CA-00022328-001

BACKGROUND:

2. The Worker appealed the Adjudication Officer’s Recommendation to the Labour Court on 21 September 2020 in accordance with Section 13(9) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969.

On 21 August 2020 the Adjudication Officer issued the following Recommendation:-

“Having considered the submissions of both parties to this dispute I do not recommend in favour of the Worker”

A Labour Court hearing took place on 24 March 2021.

DECISION :

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

At the hearing of the Court the Claimant’s representative clarified that no matter related to implementation in respect of the Claimant of an earlier Labour Court Recommendation remained. Two claims therefore were considered by the Court:

• That the Claimant had suffered a reduction in working hours of six hours per week each week between 1^st January 2016 and mid-2017,

That the Claimant was, on occasion, not paid travel time when she was so entitled.

The Court has been presented with data by the Employer which appears to demonstrate that no reduction in the Claimant’s average weekly working hours of the quantum claimed or at all occurred between January 2016 and mid-2017. The Trade Union did not dispute the accuracy of the Employer’s submission in this respect albeit it did not confirm acceptance of its accuracy.

The Trade Union was unable to place before the Court any detail of occasions when the Claimant might not have received travel time to which she was entitled. The Employer submitted that the Claimant had earlier claimed travel time for days she was absent through illness and that this matter had been resolved locally. The Employer asserted that it was unaware of any other occasion when any issue occurred as regards payment of travel time to the Claimant.

The Court is concerned at what appears to be the accepted fact that no issue was raised about any matter remaining before the Court until the parties attended at the Workplace Relations Commission in 2018. The Court believes that this failure to engage effectively locally may have contributed significantly to the dispute before the Court in that no shared understanding of factual matters underpinning the dispute was apparent to the Court at its hearing. The Court is also concerned that the Claim as presented was not supported by accurate information or documentation which the Claimant might have provided to the Trade Union and in the case of the claim for unpaid travel time, was without any quantification or specificity which the Claimant might also have provided to her Trade Union.

In all of the circumstances, the Court concludes on the basis of the submissions made and the information provided both orally and as part of those submissions, that it cannot support the claims of the Claimant.

The appeal fails.

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Kevin Foley
OC	______________________
31 March 2021	Chairman