Labour Court recommends Kilcock drivers retain €2,500 from relocation package

The Labour Court recommended that drivers who took redundancy by 31 December 2006 could retain €2,500 of their overall package, with the remainder subject to clawback. The recommendation was dated 16 November 2006. The dispute concerned payments to 11 drivers relocated to the Kilcock site by Musgrave Supervalu Centra Limited. The package included €8,000 in relocation compensation, €2,500 for future loss of earnings and €1,500 for loss of future overnights. The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union argued the written agreement did not provide for deductions if drivers chose redundancy; the company said redundancy was an alternative to permanent relocation and drivers could not keep both payments. The Court found that a clawback was implied by the agreement's context, but treated future-loss compensation differently from payments for relocation inconvenience.