A fresh High Court challenge has been brought against a Sectoral Employment Order for electrical workers.
The action has been brought by the Náisiúnta Leictreach Contraitheor Eireann/National Electrical Contractors of Ireland (NECI) which wants a SEO, which came into effect at the start of last February, quashed.
Nationally binding SEO’s are made under the 2015 Industrial Relations Act when either employers or trade unions make applications to the Labour Court to examine pay and conditions for a defined economic sector.
The Labour Court may then may a recommendation to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for an SEO.
Rates
If accepted the Minister, then fixes the statutory minimum rates of pay and regulates the conditions of employment of the works to whom the SEO apply.
In its action NECI, which operates as a trade association for electrical contractors, claims the SEO for electrical workers is flawed on several grounds.
It claims that submissions made by it regarding the proposed SEO for electrical workers were not dealt with by the Labour Court.
The Labour Court rejected the NECI’s proposal that small electrical contractors be excluded from the SEO.
The Labour court did not fully explain in its decision why it was proportionate or necessary to include them, it is claimed.
The Labour court did not give reasons for many of its findings, it is also claimed.
The Labour Court’s decision in this instance was also irrational and unreasonable, and there was a failure by to consider relevant material, the NECI also claims.
The SEO also imposes conditions of employment which the NECI claims cannot be complied with.
It says that there are no pension schemes, sick pay schemes or death in service schemes in Ireland that comply with the requirements prescribed in the SEO.
There is no single pension plan scheme on the Irish market which could facilitate the entry of workers aged 15 to 17 years of age and workers aged 66 and over when the scheme became effective.
Other mandatory requirements in the SEO are vague and not adequately clear enough to be reasonably understood, it is further submitted.
Represented by Helen Callanan SC, instructed by HG Carpendale Solicitors the NECI have brought judicial review proceedings against the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar seeking to have the SEO quashed.
Findings
The application came before Mr Justice Charles Meenan at the High Court on Monday. The judge on an ex-parte basis granted the NECI permission to bring its challenge.
The matter was made returnable to a date in May.
The NECI had challenged an earlier SEO in relation to electrical workers.
Last year the Supreme Court overturned the High Court’s finding that aspects of the 2015 Act was unconstitutional.
However, the court upheld the lower court’s decision that the Minister for Business and Enterprise and Innovation acted outside his powers in June 2019 in making a sectoral employment order (SEO) for electricians.
Following the Court’s findings, a revised SEO for the sector was formulated, and approved by the Minister.
