Labour Court backs carpenter’s claim for extra travel time after hospital promotion

The Labour Court recommended that the East Coast Area Health Board concede a carpenter’s claim for additional daily travel time after he took a promotion at Newcastle Hospital. The recommendation was signed on 19 August 2002. The Building And Allied Trades Union sought two and a half hours’ travel time per day for the journey from Clonskeagh to Newcastle, backdated to September 2001. The Board said he should accept the terms of the promoted post and noted he continued to receive one and a half hours, while Newcastle colleagues received one hour. The Court accepted that the 1979 agreement remained in force because no evidence of a later agreement replacing it had been provided.