LCR23143

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Referral under Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act 1990.

BACKGROUND:

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 21st of March 2025 in accordance with Section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990. A Labour Court hearing took place on 14 May 2025.

UNION'S ARGUMENTS.

1. Due to company restructuring, the Worker’s roles have been unreasonably changed and devalued.
2. The Union is seeking an alternative mapping for the Workers to a Grade F role which is more in line with what they had originally applied for.

EMPLOYER'S ARGUMENTS.

1. The right to assign the Worker to other roles and duties and the right to change line management is reserved by contract.
2. The previously used mapping process and appeal process was agreed and was followed.

RECCOMENDATION:

The issue in dispute between the parties is in respect of three Regional Support Officers (RSO) who had previously worked for Erva and Bord Gais Eireann before their roles were subsequently mapped to Uisce Eireann. It is their belief that contrary to agreements with the Union their roles have been substantially diminished.

The Union submitted that the RSO’s had been subjected to unreasonable and significant changes to their roles. It is their belief that the role they were mapped to does not recognise their skillset and they are now reporting to a supervisor one level above them when previously they reported to a Regional Manager who was at a much higher level. They are now working as part of a national Business Support Team, and they believe the work that they are doing consists of lower graded national work. They want to return to their high-level reporting and regional work.   The Union accepted that the Workers posts had been mapped in accordance with the agreed procedure and that the Workers had used the appeal procedure provided for in the collective agreement, but their appeal was not upheld.

 The Employer’s position is that they have a collective agreement which sets out how posts were to be mapped, and these posts have been mapped in accordance with the collective agreement. The Workers now had a career structure which they did not previously have as Uisce Eireann was a much larger organisation than where they had previously worked. There were also other RSO’s who were mapped in the same manner. The Employer cannot operate outside of the collective process agreed with the Unions.

 The Court having taken careful consideration of the written and oral submissions notes that the three RSO’s posts were mapped in accordance with the collective agreement. No breach of the collective agreement has been alleged. The Court can find no basis to recommend concession of this claim.  

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Louise O'Donnell
AR	______________________
03 June 2025	Deputy Chairman

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Decision should be addressed to o Mr Aidan Ralph, Court Secretary.