In 2000, the Labour Court recommended changes to a proposed pay agreement covering workers at Hollister Ulc in Ballina, Co Mayo. Its recommendations, signed on 19 September 2000, included extra service pay and dropping a proposed single grade for new employees.
Services Industrial Professional Technical Union opposed the single-grade proposal and sought changes to pay, productivity targets and benefits. Hollister Ulc said its proposals could increase an operator’s pay by 37% to 40% if productivity targets were achieved, and that further increases would be unacceptable.
The Court recommended an extra 1% in service pay at 15 years and a further 1% at 20 years. It also recommended accepting the pay proposals reached at conciliation, with the parties to meet if fourth-phase targets were missed for reasons outside workers’ control. The recommendation called for a joint monitoring group, further discussion of performance improvements and acceptance of the other conciliation terms.