The Labour Court recommended that the Office Of Public Works withdraw compulsory redundancy notices for 53 workers on arterial drainage schemes, finding the proposed redundancies breached the Programme for National Recovery agreement. The recommendation was signed on 22 January 1988.
The Irish Transport And General Workers' Union argued that the agreement required public-service redundancies to be voluntary. The Office said the workers’ jobs depended on available funding and that the agreement did not create a new guarantee of job security. The Court accepted the union’s interpretation, finding the proposed redundancies resulted solely from financial cutbacks, and recommended withdrawing the notices.