The High Court has ruled that the Joint Labour Committee ("JLC") system of setting wages and terms and conditions for up to 200,000 workers is unconstitutional.
In the case of John Grace Fried Chicken limited, John Grace & Quick Service Food Alliance Limited -V- The Catering Joint Labour Committee, the Labour Court, Ireland & the Attorney General [2008 No.10663 P], the fast food outlet Plaintiffs argued that the Joint Labour Committee system is unconstitutional, unfair, and breached their property rights.
Mr. Justice Kevin Feeney decided that the legislation governing JLCs has inadequate grounding legal principles and policies that would allow them to operate constitutionally. Essentially, the High Court has deemed the Industrial Relations Acts, 1946 and 1990 which govern JLCs give too much power to the Labour Court without adequate guidance and supervision from the Oireachtas.
By way of background, the Catering Joint Labour Committee is a body established pursuant to the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 by a statutory instrument created in 1965. The Catering JLC is applicable only to workers within the Catering Industry and to particular geographical areas within the State, those working in Dublin and those working outside Dublin.
The Catering JLC is responsible for formulating policies and minimum terms and conditions of employment for workers to which the JLC is applicable. These policies and terms of employment, including remuneration, are incorporated into an Employment Regulation Order ("ERO") which is then submitted by the Committee to the Labour Court for approval, and which, subject to such approal, becomes legally binding on all employers within the relevant industry.
It would appear that Mr. Justice Kevin Feeney has accepted that there is an absence of goals, standards, identifiable principles, Ministerial guidance, criteria and/or factors to be applied by the Committee and the Labour Court when exercising the powers conferred on them by the Industrial Relations Act, 1946 when he stated in his written Judgment that:-
"There was not any reasonable uniformity of terms which would be required by justice. The Court also heard evidence that the rates of remuneration and conditions of employment determined by the ERO in issue were in excess of those laid down by the Oireachtas in statute by the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000 where principles and policies giving rise to such rates of remuneration and conditions of employment are identified. On the facts of this case no such principles and policies were identified in the ERO or 1946 or 1990 Acts which would enable persons affected by the ERO to ascertain the principles and policies or supervisory measures which resulted in different rates from those established under the 2000 Act, where principles and policies are identified.
A body which has delegated to it a power of subordinate legislation must exercise that power within the limitations which are expressed or necessarily implied in the provisions providing for such delegation. One implication which arises in the circumstances of such delegation is that the power to make subordinate legislation should be exercised reasonably. On the facts before this Court that is not what has occurred. The ERO which was made introduced fixing wage rates and conditions of employment and was made in an arbitrary manner in that certain rates were set out for a geographical area when significantly different and more restrictive rates and conditions of employment applied in an immediate adjoining area without there being any identifiable basis for such discrimination. In the light of the above, this Court is satisfied that the plaintiffs have established that the ERO made on the 12th May, 2008 (S.I. 142 of 2008) unlawfully interferes with the first two plaintiffs' property rights under Article 40.3 of the Constitution."
See also:-
Registered Employment Agreements to be Independently Reviewed
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