Labour Court recommends four-cycle shifts and pay rises in SK Biotek dispute

The Labour Court recommended four-cycle shift working and pay increases in a dispute over a survival plan affecting a facility employing 375 people. The recommendation, signed on 27 February 2020, followed an unresolved conciliation conference at the Workplace Relations Commission. SK Biotek proposed a plan that included four-cycle shifts. The 89 General Operatives, represented by the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union and Connect Trade Union, rejected that proposal and suggested changes to five-cycle shift arrangements. The Court said the parties had not engaged effectively and that disagreement over four-cycle shifts was the principal reason progress on the wider plan had stalled. It recommended agreement to four-cycle working and pay increases of 2.5% from 1 January 2019 and a further 2.5% from 1 January 2020. The parties should then discuss the plan’s remaining issues, including redundancy. Any unresolved matters after eight weeks could be referred back to the Court for a definitive recommendation.