Labour Court finds 19 operators qualify for investigation of union dispute

The Labour Court found it could investigate the Communications Workers Union’s dispute with Conduit Enterprises Ltd over pay and pensions for emergency call-answering operators. It signed its decision on 25 January 2017. The union said its members made up 19 of 61 operators; the employer put the workforce at 64 or 65 and argued that 19 was insignificant. The Court said the statutory declaration measured current membership and found that 19 workers were party to the dispute when it came within the Court’s jurisdiction in October 2016. It concluded that 19 was not insignificant and said it would proceed to investigate the dispute under section 2. The decision did not make a substantive recommendation on the pay or pension issues.