LCR22815

1. Complaint Under Section 20(1) Of The Industrial Relations Act 1969

BACKGROUND:

2. On the 29 May 2023 the Worker, referred this dispute to the Labour Court in accordance with Section 20(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969 and agreed to be bound by the Court’s Recommendation. A Labour Court hearing took place on 24 August 2023.

RECOMMENDATION:

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

The trade dispute before the Court concerns a disciplinary sanction imposed on the worker by the employer.

The employment operates in a regulated environment. The events giving rise to the trade dispute relate to a conversation between the worker an employee of another organisation.

The employer contends that the worker engaged in an impermissible breach of confidentiality which had very significant potential consequences having regard to the nature of the employer’s business and the sensitivity of the regulated environment within which it operates.

The worker submits that she held an ‘off the record’ conversation with that other person which cannot be regarded as a breach of confidentiality having regard to its ‘off the record’ nature.

Notwithstanding the worker’s description of the conversation as ‘off the record’, the Court has noted that both the worker and the other person involved immediately relayed its contents to other persons.

The matter giving rise to the trade dispute was independently investigated. The report of the investigation has, according to the parties, been accepted by both parties.

The report of the investigation acknowledges that a breach of confidentiality had taken place but also acknowledged that the ‘level and extent of the damage was exasperated by’ the employee of the other organisation.

The sanction imposed on the worker following an appeal was a that of a written warning to expire 12 months after issue. The warning was issued on or about 4^th April 2023. The employer advised the Court that any such warning is removed from the worker’s file after expiry and is not capable of being referred to again. In other words, the warning is expunged from the worker’s record and file on expiry.

Having regard to all of the circumstances of this matter the Court recommends that the trade dispute should be resolved by an agreement that the warning issued on or about 4^th April 2023 will expire on 31^st December 2023 and that, in accordance with the arrangements in place in the employment, no record of its issue will remain thereafter and neither will either party refer to the issue of the sanction at any time following its expiry.

The Court so recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Kevin Foley
CO'R	______________________
6 September 2023	Chairman