Labour Court recommends seven workers accept Berendsen’s pay offer

The Labour Court recommended that Seven General Operatives accept Berendsen (Ireland) Limited T/A Elis’s pay offer, in a recommendation signed on 8 October 2020. The package included a voucher in lieu of a 2% increase for hours worked from 1 January to 30 April 2019, a 3% increase from May 2019 and a 2.5% increase from May 2020. The workers, represented by the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union, sought a 5.5% increase from May 2019 and said they had gone 12 years without a pay rise. The employer cited the pandemic and the workers’ inclusion in the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme. The Court noted that the hospital contracts on which the workers were engaged had not lost value and that the employer did not claim it was unable to meet the claim.