Labour Court asks fisheries board and union to agree grading terms

In 1994, the Labour Court found administrative assistants had been wrongly graded for years and recommended that Central Fisheries Board and the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union agree a reasonable basis for assimilation within four weeks. The recommendation was signed on 22 March 1994. The 11 workers were employed across seven Regional Fisheries Boards. After an independent assessment, the parties agreed they should move from grade III to grade IV. The Board had offered upgrading from November 1993, with £250 each instead of retrospection, conditional on union cooperation with information technology; the union rejected that offer and sought regrading based on service and full retrospection. The Court said the proposed framework did not adequately address the workers' circumstances. If the parties could not agree, it said it would review their discussions and issue a definitive recommendation.