30th June 2010 High Court finds in favour of Labour Court on challenge from electrical contractors to collective agreements for thousands of workers
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union has welcomed the judgement of Mr Justice John Hedigan in ruling against a group of electrical contractors on all counts in a legal challenge they brought against the Labour Court on the Registered Employment Agreement (REA) for their industry. If they had been successful it could have adversely affected the pay and conditions of hundreds of thousands of workers who are covered by the REA system.
TEEU General Secretary Eamon Devoy, whose union was a notice party to the proceedings and who represent 10,000 members in the electrical contracting sector, said today that Mr Justice Hedigan’s judgement was “a victory for common sense and decency. It was also a very welcome endorsement for the Labour Court and vindication of its procedures.
“We would appeal to employers’, including this group, to use the tried and tested methods of dispute resolution through our voluntary system of industrial relations rather than waste everyone’s time and money taking confrontational cases to the courts.”
Mr Justice Heigan found against a group of seven named electrical contractors who had questioned the constitutional basis for the REA system and in particular the findings of the Labour Court in its latest review of the REA.
The Judge said the contractors should have brought any constitutional challenge separately from the judicial review of the Labour Court’s adjudication on the REA. The constitutional challenge was well outside the three month time limit, even allowing that the electrical contractors concerned said they only learnt of the provisions of the REA in 2003. They could however issue plenary proceedings if they so wished.
He found that the Labour Court had been correct in its interpretation of the Posted Workers Directive and the Laval case judgement of the European Court of Justice. Without the REA system to set standards, there would be nothing to stop employers bringing in workers on low wages to undertake contracts. He also found that the Labour Court had not shown bias against the contractors at its hearings, had assessed evidence properly and that subcontractors were covered by REAs, and always had been since the inception of the system.
