Labour Court varies Royal & Sun Alliance worker’s notice terms

The Labour Court varied a Rights Commissioner’s recommendation in a dispute between Royal & Sun Alliance and a worker whose Senior Engineer Surveyor role had become redundant, reducing the company’s working-time requirement during his notice period from 80% to 70%. The union argued that under the Security of Employment and Earnings Agreement, the worker should be allowed to work his 18-month notice in his current role or receive pay in lieu or garden leave if that role was abolished. The company said the agreement gave him a right to work notice, not a right to the same work. The Court said management could decide whether the worker should work his notice or take garden leave, and found no unfair or unreasonable exercise of that discretion. It reduced the working-time requirement to 70%, asked the parties to review the position at the end of 2002, and affirmed the recommendation with those changes. The decision was signed on 25 February 2002.