LCR22802

1. Collective Agreement & Pay

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 7 March 2023 in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990. Labour Court hearings took place on 14 April 2023 and 4 August 2023.

RECOMMENDATION:

The within dispute concerns a pay claim brought on behalf of nine Workers whose terms and conditions of employment were historically regulated by a collective agreement negotiated between SIPTU and Hodges Figgis. The collective agreement provided for a fifteen-point incremental pay scale. The Workers who are the subject of this dispute have all reached the top of that scale.

The Hodges Figgis business was acquired by Waterstones in 1999 but continues to trade under the brand name Hodges Figgis. There are approximately forty-five staff employed at the store in Dawson Street, the majority of whom are employed on Waterstones’ (‘the Company’) terms and conditions. The Company terminated the collective agreement in May 2015 but continued to apply the incremental pay scale to legacy employees who had not moved to the Waterstones’ contract. It is open to those on legacy contracts to voluntarily move to the Waterstones’ contract at any stage.

The Court was informed that there are three principal matters in respect of which the working arrangements of legacy workers and those on Waterstones’ contracts differ: Sunday working, public holidays and special events (such as book launches). In practice, for example, those on legacy contracts are not rostered to work public holidays are their contracts provide for payment of double time plus a day off in lieu when a public holiday is worked. Those on Waterstones’ contracts who work on a public holiday receive a day’s pay and can avail themselves of a day’s annual leave thereafter.

Those employed on Waterstones’ contracts received a six per cent pay increase on 1 April 2022 and a second six per cent pay increase on 1 December 2022. Those on legacy contracts did not receive those increases, receiving only whatever increments they may have qualified for in accordance with the incremental scale provided for in the now-defunct collective agreement. Any legacy employee, for example, who had reached the top of the scale on or before April 2022 has not received any pay increase in the intervening period. The nine Workers employed on legacy terms and conditions are seeking a similar 12% pay increase to that received by their colleagues.

Recommendation

The Court recommends concession of the within claim with effect from 1 September 2023 subject to the nine Workers agreeing to adopt and apply the arrangements that apply to their colleagues on Waterstones’ terms and conditions in relation to Sunday working, working on public holidays and at special events as and from the aforementioned date.

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Alan Haugh
DC	______________________
14 August 2023	Deputy Chairman