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LCR22650

FULL RECOMMENDATION


CD/22/129
CCC-165691-21
RECOMMENDATION  NO.  LCR22650

SECTION 26(1), INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT, 1990


PARTIES :
DUBLIN BUS
(REPRESENTED BY IRISH BUSINESS AND EMPLOYERS' CONFEDERATION)

- AND -

80 WORKERS
(REPRESENTED BY SERVICES INDUSTRIAL PROFESSIONAL TECHNICAL UNION
CONNECT
UNITE THE UNION)


DIVISION :

Chairman: Mr Foley
Employer Member: Ms Doyle
Worker Member: Mr Hall

SUBJECT:

1. Payment Of Disturbance Allowance

BACKGROUND:

2. UNION'S ARGUMENTS:
Works being done at the garage were having an effect on the workers ability to perform day to day duties to a satisfactory level. Working conditions were unacceptable.

COMPANY'S ARGUMENTS:
A collective agreement had been in place since 2001. The company put measures in place to diminish the effects on the employees of the works being done.





RECOMMENDATION :

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

The parties are disagreed as to the level of impact of the works in the garage and the degree to which effective mitigating arrangements were in place in the garage during the entirety of the period of the works.

The parties are agreed that the cost of the claim exceeds €500,000 and the employer contends that the amount at issue significantly exceeds that amount.

The parties are agreed that collective agreements were concluded in 2001 which covered all of the grades before the Court in the current claim. Those agreements provided for the payment of 1,200 punts each to all staff in those grades in return for undertakings that


  • • “The payment relates to current and all future Architectural and Engineering works of any kind at Garage / Location premises, yard and environs.

    • The payment precludes all future claims from engineering operatives for such works”


Those 2001 agreements were accepted by the membership of the Trade Unions and remain in place according to both parties.

The Court has consistently taken the view that parties to collective agreements should respect and observe those agreements unless and until they are replaced by successor agreements or are terminated by the parties. The Court notes that the parties are agreed that their 2001 agreements remain in place and unamended. Those agreements are not specific to any particular garage and state that the payment made at that time precluded all future claims from engineering operatives for such work.

In all of the circumstances, the Court concludes that the claim before it is, by agreement of the parties, precluded by the terms of their 2001 agreement and cannot therefore succeed.

The Court does not therefore recommend concession of the Trade Union side claim.

The Court so recommends.

Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
Kevin Foley
IK ______________________
28 September 2022 Chairman


NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Ian Kelly, Court Secretary.