Labour Court recommends against Joseph Clarke in statutory redundancy dispute

The Labour Court recommended that Joseph Clarke’s statutory redundancy dispute was not well founded, in a decision dated 29 August 2022. Clarke had worked for James C Byrne Manufacturing Limited T/A Byrnes Jewellers for about 58 years before the company was dissolved. Clarke was laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic and later told that his employment was ending because of redundancy, but that no funds were available for his statutory redundancy and notice entitlements. A WRC adjudication officer declined jurisdiction over his earlier complaint because the company had been dissolved. Clarke referred the dispute to the Labour Court under the Industrial Relations Act 1969. The Court found that he had made the referral outside the time allowed to appeal the adjudication officer’s decision and that the Act was not intended to let a dispute already considered in another forum be brought again. It recommended that the matter was not well founded; the merits were not decided.