LCR22610

1. Non-Payment Of Two Days Annual Leave In 2020.

BACKGROUND:

2. 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 the 4 November 2021 in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990. A Labour Court hearing took place on 28 January 2022.


RECOMMENDATION :

Background to the Dispute

This dispute arises from a claim by SIPTU (‘the Union’) for payment of two days of annual leave which it submits were unilaterally deducted by Cartamundi Ireland Limited (‘the Company’) from its members’ contractual leave entitlement in 2020, following a nine-week period of lay off during the height of the Covid pandemic between March and May of that year.

The Company subsequently made a provisional offer to restore one of the contractual annual leave days subject to the workers agreeing not to pursue a claim for the second day. This was balloted on by the Union’s effected members in July 2021 and rejected.

The Company’s position is that in 2020 there was a period of unavoidable lay-off caused by the Covid-19 global pandemic. The Company, it submits, was instructed to close by the HSE due to a Covid-19 cluster on 12th March 2020. On the date the Company was due to reopen, the Government directed all non-essential businesses to close and this prevented the planned re-opening and extended the period of lay-off. The Company had to remain closed until the government guidelines were revised and the plant did not re-open until 18 May 2020. The Company recalculated the workers’ annual leave entitlement for annual leave year 2020 having regard to the extended period of lay-off. It submits that in the circumstances, a full-time worker’s total annual leave entitlement for 2020 (including contractual days) was 20 days.


Recommendation

The Court recommends that the Company renew its offer of one day’s annual leave for 2020 in full and final settlement of the within dispute.

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Alan Haugh
SL	______________________
10 June 2022	Deputy Chairman