Labour Court upholds Coillte redeployment recommendation after £250,000 harvester dispute

In 1998, the Labour Court upheld a Rights Commissioner’s recommendation that three Coillte Teoranta workers accept redeployment after their timber-harvesting group made significant losses. The decision was dated 2 April 1998. The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union appealed on the workers’ behalf, arguing that management failures, inadequate training and a broken harvester contributed to the group’s difficulties. Coillte said the group had accumulated significant losses and a replacement harvester would cost approximately £250,000. The Court said Coillte bore some responsibility for allowing the problems to develop, but found the losses were mainly attributable to poor budgetary and operational management by the group’s members. It did not require Coillte to re-establish the group, citing the investment required. The Court urged the company to improve its controls, monitoring and support for similar groups.