Labour Court recommends talks on Danninger clocking and redundancy policies

The Labour Court recommended that Danninger Ltd and the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union continue discussions on biometric clocking and redundancy selection. The union objected that biometric clocking was introduced without consultation and sought a companywide lay-off selection policy. Danninger Ltd said the system addressed abuse of manual clocking and defended site-by-site lay-offs as industry practice. The Court recommended continuing the clocking system in the meantime, subject to transparency, compliance with the Data Protection Commissioner's criteria and union consent. It also called for urgent talks on a fair and practical lay-off system, with industry-level assistance if the sides did not agree. The recommendation was signed on 3 September 2008.