The Labour Court has criticised Waste Management Company, Oxigen, stating that whilst it [the Company] was not justified in “unilaterally” implementing a recent wage cut, the Labour Court did acknowledge that the measure was needed to protect the viability of the business. In their decision the Court accepted the validity of the company’s arguments, but opposed how it went about implementing the cuts, and said that
“(deductions) have already been implemented notwithstanding a requirement in the procedural agreement between the parties to process issues in dispute through normal dispute resolution procedures, including the Court”. The Court said it had facilitated the parties with an early hearing (within two weeks of the referral) and that it “can see no justifiable reason as to why the Company found it necessary to act unilaterally rather than awaiting the Court’s recommendations”. In the decision you can see that the Labour Court recommended that the proposals stemming from conciliation be accepted with the following amendments:
- For the reasons referred to above the reductions should now be agreed and should take effect only from the date of this Recommendation.
- The reduction now in issue, together with the earlier reductions, should be regarded as a derogation from the agreed rates and should remain in place for no longer that is justified by the economic and commercial circumstances of the employment.
- Those economic and commercial circumstances should be jointly reviewed periodically by the parties and if and when those circumstances improve sufficiently both the current and the earlier reductions, in respect of those to whom they applied, should be restored. (LCR 20351)
Any formal change to an employees terms and conditions of employment must be agreed in advance with an employee, or the risk of constructive dismissal can loom for an employer. See our previous posting on constructive dismissal here.
