LCR22823

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

BACKGROUND:

2. On 21 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 7 September 2023.

RECOMMENDATION:

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

In the course of its hearing, it became known to the Court that the worker has initiated two employment law based complaints against the employer which share many of the same facts underpinning this industrial relations trade dispute. These complaints in law will, in due course, fall to be decided by an Adjudication Officer of the WRC. Any decision of an Adjudication Officer will be capable of being appealed to this Court.

Good industrial relations, in the view of the Court, depends on realism and pragmatism on the part of disputing parties. In the within matter the Court is asked to give its opinion based on the merits of the parties’ trade dispute as to how that dispute might be settled. The underpinning proposition is that the parties will consider the opinion of the Court with a view to resolving their difference by voluntary agreement.

In the view of the Court, it is not realistic to expect an opinion of the Court, given in circumstances where many of the matters at issue will be subject to legally binding outcomes under employment law statutes, to hold any prospect of offering the parties a credible means of resolution of this trade dispute.

The Court therefore recommends that the parties should accept that their industrial relations trade dispute is resolved against a mutual recognition that much of the matters at issue will be determined in a legally binding procedure which has been initiated by the worker.

The Court so recommends.

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