Labour Court rejects Central Bank union’s bid to double machine allowance

The Labour Court rejected the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union’s claim to increase the daily machine allowance from 5% to 10% of salary. The recommendation was dated 8 March 2005. The dispute involved 24 machine operators and supervisors at the Central Bank who were to carry out regular checks that note-processing machines identified counterfeit notes and counted notes correctly. The union said the checks were new and additional work. The Bank argued they would take only a few minutes every couple of weeks and fit within normal duties. The Court found the verification procedure could be classified as normal ongoing change under the Sustaining Progress agreement, and rejected the union’s claim.