Rise in industrial disputes referred to Labour Court last year
There was a 20% rise in the number of industrial disputes last year referred to the Labour Court, and the court does not expect a reduction in cases due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In its annual report, the court said it received 1,182 appeals and referrals under the various statutes within its jurisdiction in 2019 — just a 1% rise in overall referrals, compared to 2018.
However, industrial relations disputes increased from 399 in 2018 to 479 in 2019, representing a 20% rise, while referrals in employment rights appeals fell by just under 9% to 703.
The court said it had began hearings in virtual sittings since the beginning of this month in order to mitigate the fallout from the pandemic.
It said it expects similar volumes of referrals and appeals in 2020, adding that it noted the rate of appeal and referral has not decreased significantly throughout the crisis.
The Labour Court said its capacity to convene hearings in a courtroom is severely curtailed, leading to it develop a virtual courtroom “from a standing start”.
Kevin Foley, chairman of the Labour Court, said: “The critical issue for the court in making arrangements for the hearing of disputes in the current situation has been to ensure fairness and correctness of procedure so that all users can make their case to the court and respond to any case made against them. We are satisfied that the virtual courtrooms we have created meet that standard.”
Mr Foley said the Labour Court expected that for the medium term, hearings will be delivered using a combination of physical and virtual rooms.
In the annual report, the proportion of referrals to the Labour Court in 2019 which were employment rights-based was 60%, a trend that has been maintained since 2015.
Prior to that date, referrals of industrial relations and employment rights disputes were almost exactly 50:50. The report said it is estimated that this trend of a majority of appeals to the court arising in the area of employment rights will continue to grow into the future.
There was, according to the CSO, a total of nine industrial disputes in progress in 2019, involving 42,656 workers.
Mr Foley said this was a relatively low level of dispute activity.
“This low level of trade dispute activity confirms the effectiveness of our voluntarist workplace dispute resolution framework which commences with direct engagement in the workplace and is completed by the Labour Court,” he said.
