Enforcement/Implementation of Labour Court Recommendations and Decisions
Queries in relation to enforcement and implementation of decisions and recommendations of the Labour Court are something that the Court frequently receives.
The response, in simple terms, is that the Court has no role at all in the enforcement and implementation of its decisions and recommendations. Nor is it within the scope of the Court’s functions to provide advice or information in relation to enforcement and implementation.
The workplace dispute resolution system in Ireland distinguishes between two areas of employment regulation: (1) industrial relations; (2) employment rights. There are very important and significant distinctions between the two areas.
(1) industrial relations
The industrial relations dispute resolution mechanisms in Ireland operate within a voluntary system, meaning that workers and employers are not compelled to utilise the mechanisms but may choose to do so voluntarily. The system caters for both individual disputes between a worker and their employer and collective disputes between a body of workers (usually represented by a trade union) and their employer.
Within the voluntary system, a worker or a trade union may refer what is termed a ‘trade dispute’ (which is defined as, any dispute or difference between employers and workers related to terms and conditions of employment) to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Collective disputes proceed to the conciliation service of the WRC, and thereafter to the Court if not settled at conciliation stage and if both parties jointly request the involvement of the Court. Following a recommendation from the Court, the parties will proceed with their respective decision-making processes, with the trade union normally conducting a ballot of its members on the question of acceptance or otherwise. With no legal means of enforcing the Labour Court’s recommendation, trade unions or employers typically consider other industrial relations methods of encouraging the other party to settle their trade dispute if a Recommendation of the Court is rejected by one or other party.
Accordingly, acceptance or otherwise of a recommendation and its implementation is entirely a matter for the parties, with the Court having no role once a recommendation issues.
In the case of an individual worker, where the employer agrees to participate in the industrial relations process, an Adjudication Officer will hear the parties and issue an opinion, in the form of a recommendation, on the merits of the dispute and how it should be resolved. The recommendation may be appealed to the Labour Court, who will hear the parties and issue its decision as the final arbiter in the industrial relations system.
Despite the fact that they may have opted to participate in the process up to that point, the parties are free in law to accept or reject the decision of the Court without legal consequence. The Court’s decision is an industrial relations decision with no strict legal effect and, unlike a decision in an employment rights matter, is not enforceable in any legal sense.
The Court has experience of individual workers contacting it following receipt of an industrial relations decision seeking to understand how they can pursue the employer’s compliance with the Court’s decision. The Court does not invite such queries and cannot provide advice or assistance in this regard.
While a worker may receive an industrial relations decision from the Labour Court which recommends, for example, a level of monetary compensation as a means of resolving a trade dispute, it is fully open to the employer (and the worker) to reject or ignore that recommendation and there is no available legal means to enforce it.
Once the outcome has been issued in an industrial relations matter, the Court’s file will be closed and no further contact with parties will normally be permitted. Occasionally, however, parties may seek clarification of a Recommendation or Decision issued by the Court in an industrial relations case and such clarification may, in certain circumstances, be provided.
(2) employment rights
The employment rights area comprises the substantial body of employment enactments covering individual worker rights and employer responsibilities in areas such as working time, holidays, employment equality/discrimination, unfair dismissal, redundancy, minimum wage, maternity protection etc. The relevant enactments are as set out in theScheduleof the Workplace Relations Act, 2015.
A complaint of a breach of employment rights by a worker is dealt with at first instance by an Adjudication Officer of the WRC, who will issue a decision to the parties which is appealable by the employer or the worker to the Labour Court.
Decisions of Adjudication Officers, if not appealed, and decisions of the Labour Court in employment rights matters, unlike industrial relations decisions and recommendations, are enforceable through a District Court enforcement process.
The Labour Court has no role in District Court enforcement processes.
A party seeking to enforce a Labour Court employment rights decision which has not been carried out by the employer within the period of 42 days from the date of the Labour Court’s decision, may make an application to the District Court for an order directing the employer to carry out the decision.
The Labour Court cannot assist or advise in relation to a District Court enforcement process. Information on District Court procedures may be found onDistrict Court procedures (citizensinformation.ie).
Once the Labour Court makes its decision in an employment rights matter then, other than correcting mistakes or omissions of an administrative or clerical nature, the Court lacks any jurisdiction to alter, reconsider or reopen its decision. In legal terminology, the Court having issued its decision in an employment rights matter is,functus officio, meaning the Court has no further official function.
