Labour Court recommends pay protection and ex-gratia payments for four Donegal Meat Processors workers

The Labour Court recommended that Donegal Meat Processors Ltd maintain four red-circled employees’ pay until similarly classified colleagues caught up, and pay them annual ex-gratia amounts equal to 50% of the value of pay increases applied since 1 January 2014. The recommendation was dated 29 November 2016. The dispute concerned whether the four employees, whose rates were at or above the skilled rate although their roles were classified as unskilled, should continue to receive pay increases. The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union said they had expected increases for their grade; the company said the arrangement protected their higher rates and that three would be caught up by a general increase from 1 January 2017. The Court found there was no explicit agreement on continuing increases and said the employer could achieve uniform rates over time within the skills matrix. It recommended maintaining the four rates until similarly classified colleagues caught up, with the annual payments in the meantime.