Labour Court recommends €4,000 settlement for Mayo County Council foreman

The Labour Court recommended that Mayo County Council pay a General Operative €4,000 in full and final settlement of a dispute about earnings while he was acting as foreman. The recommendation was signed on 21 April 2016. The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union said the worker had been assured that taking the acting-up role would not affect his winter-maintenance overtime earnings. The Council said supervisory duties prevented him from joining the winter programme. The Court noted he had been offered an on-call roster with additional earning opportunities and accepted there may have been a misunderstanding about his participation. The union also sought travel expenses for the period when the worker could not take a Council vehicle home. The Court did not recommend conceding that claim, noting that vehicle arrangements in Castlebar were resolved within four months of his promotion. It also did not recommend excluding his late-2014 sick absence from the Council’s sick-pay reckoning rules.