Labour Court recommends fair allocation of substitute collector work

The Labour Court recommended that Carlow County Council introduce a transparent system for allocating available substitute revenue-collector work fairly to a worker, based on her position on the panel. The recommendation was signed on 5 October 2012. The worker said work that should have gone to her under her contractual arrangements was given to another substitute collector, causing lost earnings. IMPACT sought other appropriate duties or voluntary redundancy if those duties were unavailable. The council said work was offered only when available and the need for substitute cover had fallen as more collections moved to office-based methods and electronic transfers. The Court said the worker had no contractual entitlement to a particular volume of work, but had a legitimate expectation of a fair share of available work. It recommended that the council and the unions discuss how to develop a transparent allocation system.