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Mandate Successfully Defends Against Employer Appeal in Labour Court
Friday 15 July 2011, 02pm
Following a successful representation of a member's dispute regards Performance Pay against his employer to the Rights Commissioner Service, Mandate then had to defend the same when the employer appealed the decision to the Labour Court.
As stated the dispute related to marks awarded to the Worker in a Performance Development Review, which he claims deprived him of a pay rate of €13.82 per hour.
The matter was not resolved internally and thus was referred to a Rights Commissioner for investigation and recommendation. On the 16th June, 2010 the Rights Commissioner issued the following Recommendation:-
"In all ofthe circumstances, I am finding in favour of the claimant and recommend that he be assimilated onto the higher scale of€13.82 per hour with effectfrom the 19th June 2009".
On the 14th July, 2010 the Company appealed the Rights Commissioner's recommendation to the Labour Court in accordance with Section 13(9) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969.
A Labour Court hearing took place on the 19th May, 2011.
The following were the union's arguments:
a) The Company failed to follow the Performance Development Review guidelines.
b) The Worker was not given the correct score when the Company rated his performance.
c) The Worker's pay rate should be amended accordingly with full retrospection.
The company's arguments were:
a) The Performance Development Review had the full support of all the relevant unions.
b) The Company has always operated the Performance Development Review in a fair and
transparent manner.
c) The Worker's pay increased by 26% as a result of this Performance Development Review.
The Labour Court's decision was :
The Court has carefully considered the extensive written and oral submissions made byboth parties in this case. On the basis of the information provided to it by the parties the Court rejects the appeal and upholds the Rights Commissioner's Recommendation.
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