Labour Court backs existing night-shift compensation practice at Keelings Distribution

The Labour Court recommended no change to Keelings Distribution's established practice of paying 1.5 times annual loss when workers lose night-shift earnings. The recommendation, in a dispute with the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union (SIPTU), was signed on 18 January 2016. The dispute followed the closure of the night shift, which moved 19 workers to other shifts and ended their night-shift premium. The union sought two years' loss-of-earnings compensation for each worker and wanted any compulsory redundancy within two years calculated using night-shift earnings. The employer said the workers had accepted compensation based on 1.5 times annual loss and that no redundancies were planned. The Court said no redundancies were proposed or contemplated and left any future redundancy calculation to the parties to address if the issue arose; it could then return to the Court for a recommendation.