"2003 a year of stability in industrial relations despite increase in cases referred to Labour Court"

- Kevin Duffy, Chairman

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In its Annual Report for 2003, published today, the Labour Court reported an increase of 29.8% in the overall number of cases referred to the Court last year, compared to 2002. But, commenting on the figures, the Chairman of the Court, Mr. Kevin Duffy, pointed out that this did not indicate a sudden worsening of the industrial relations climate in the country. "On the contrary, the overall industrial relations environment remained one of relative stability. There was a small increase in the number of days lost due to industrial disputes in 2003, but more importantly, the number of disputes continued the downward trend of previous years. The increase in referrals to the Court resulted mainly from increased level of policing of pensions, assurance and sick pay provision in the construction industry, issues provided for in the Registered Employment Agreement for that industry" said Mr. Duffy.

Mr. Duffy said that he believed that a significant factor in the stable industrial relations climate was the availability of the services provided by the Labour Court and by the Labour Relations Commission which helped to defuse and resolve often potentially serious workplace situations that otherwise might lead to strikes or other industrial action.

Industrial relations cases once again constituted the main business of the Court in 2003, with 1,041 such referrals, accounting for 85% of the total cases referred.

As well as its industrial relations role, the Court has an adjudicating role on claims relating to various employment rights. In this area, equality cases (that is where an employee claims discrimination on any one of nine listed grounds) formed the biggest cause of referrals, at almost 7% of all cases referred. All nine discriminatory grounds featured in cases before the Court, but claims of discrimination on grounds of gender accounted for the majority of equality referrals, with a significant proportion of these relating to dismissal on grounds of pregnancy. Overall, the Court experienced a drop of over 17% in the number of equality cases referred to it, but it is too soon to say if this represents a trend.

This year’s Annual Report includes, for the first time, a synopsis of various employment rights cases completed by the Court. "This will help to highlight the types of problem that arise on a daily basis in the workplace, and the approach the Labour Court adopts to these matters" said Mr. Duffy. "I hope that it will put meat on the bare bones of the statistics in the Report, and that it will prove useful to workers, employers and others interested in this area" he said. The synopsis is in Appendix 5.

Turning to the work of the Labour Court generally, Mr. Duffy said that it remains the objective of the Court to provide informal and inexpensive arrangements for the resolution of issues referred to it. However, he commented on the increased incidence of legal representation of parties appearing before the Court in employment rights cases. In such cases in 2003, one or both parties were represented by a solicitor or barrister in 32% of cases: in equality cases the figure was 73%. He said that this has tended to change the nature of proceedings before the Court, making them more legalistic. "Whilst parties are entitled to engage a solicitor or counsel if they so wish, they should not consider it necessary to do so nor should they feel at a disadvantage if they are unrepresented or avail of the more traditional form of representation, such as that by a Trade Union / Employer Body. Furthermore, there is no provision in any of the employment rights statutes for the awarding of costs, and so where lawyers are engaged, a successful claimant may find that a significant proportion of the compensation which they are awarded goes to cover legal fees."

ENDS

NOTE FOR EDITORS

A Summary of the statistics contained in the Labour Court Annual Report 2003 is attached.

Copies of the Report and this Press Release will be available on the Labour Court website (www.labourcourt.ie]. Beidh leagan Gaeilge den Tuarascáil ar fáil, comh maith.

All enquiries to Mary Aird, Information Officer, Labour Court, tel. (01 6136643, or e-mail info@labourcourt.ie

Labour Court: Launch of Annual Report 2003

Figures in brief

1. Referrals received

Number of Referrals

The Labour Court received a total of 1,220 referrals in 2003, 280 (29.8%) more than in 2002. The increase is largely accounted for by an increase of 267 in the number of complaints of breaches of Registered Employment Agreements.

Sources of Referrals:

• 26% were referred from Labour Relations Commission following conciliation

• 20% were appeals against decisions of

  • Rights Commissioners or

  • Equality Officers or

  • Director of Equality Investigations

or for implementation of those decisions

• 18% were direct referrals
• 32% were complaints of breaches of, or for interpretation of, Registered Employment Agreements

 

Types of Referrals:

• 85%

  were industrial relations cases

• 7% were equality cases

• 6% were organisation of working time cases, and

• 2% were minimum wage and part-time work cases.

Comment on types of Referrals:

• Industrial relations referrals received in 2003 increased both in number and as proportion of total referrals compared to 2002.
• The number of equality referrals received was down, both in number and as a proportion of total referrals received (referrals down from 102 to 84)
• Cases under the Organisation of Working Time Act remained the same as in 2002.

2. Completed Cases

The Labour Court completed 13% more cases in 2003 than in 2002.

Completed cases as follows:-

• 562 industrial relations cases - 83% of total
• 41 equality cases - 6% of total
• 66 organisation of working time cases –10% of total cases
• 3 national minimum wage cases – less than 1% of total cases
• 5 part-time work cases - less than 1% of total cases

3. Dispute types in Industrial Relations Cases in 2003

Overall, the industrial relations cases completed by the Court in 2003 involved 28 different dispute types. The five types which occurred most frequently were –

• pay claims (27% of cases)
• allowances, bonuses, premiums (10%)
• redundancy (7%)
• dismissal (7%)
• local agreement procedures (6%)

4. Dispute types in Equality Cases in 2003

Of the Equality cases completed by the Court in 2003,

• 46% related to alleged discriminatory dismissal (1 or more of the 9 discriminatory grounds),
• 37% were appeals of decisions of the Director of Equality Investigations re. equal treatment (1 or more of the 9 discriminatory grounds) and
• the remainder related to complaints that Determinations of the Labour Court had not been implemented and to cases where the time for lodging a referral had expired.

As regards the discriminatory grounds cited, gender was the ground most frequently occurring (cited in 19 instances), followed by disability (5 instances), age (5 instances), race (4 instances) and family status (4 instances).

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