The Labour Court recommended that the Davenport Hotel reinstate five accommodation assistants on their contract pay and pay them what they would have earned after being removed from the roster. The recommendation was signed on 7 March 2011. The Court also said they should be included in the roster taking effect on 9 March.
The dispute followed the hotel’s proposal to cut hourly pay by 10%, from €8.65 to €7.80. The five workers refused to agree, and the hotel removed them from the roster and payroll. The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union said there had been no agreement to the cut and workers were pressed to consent under threat of losing their work.
The hotel said difficult trading conditions required cost reductions to protect jobs. The Court said it had not received financial or trading information to support the need for the cut. It also found the workers had not been given relevant information and time to consider the proposal, and that the hotel had not used fair procedures to resolve disagreements.