High Court rules in favour of fast-food operators on JLCs

national | worker & community struggles and protests | other press

Thursday July 07, 2011 15:20

by pat c

Law And The Courts Are For The Rich

The High Court has ruled in favour of millionaire employers. Setting a legal minimum wage for the Catering Trade is unconstitutional. Baling out the banks is constitutional, banning strikes is constitutional. Letting multinationals rob our national resources is constitutional.

But catering workers cannot be paid e9.65 an hour. Thats unconstitutional. But the millionaire employers are going to get compensation from the State! No money for hospitals, plenty of money for bankers and exploiters.

Its time to say Enough! http://enoughcampaign.org/
Join in the Enough Campaign, join in other protests.

High Court rules in favour of fast-food operators on JLCs

The High Court has upheld a challenge by fast-food operators to the constitutionality of laws setting mandatory minimum rates of pay and conditions for more than 190,000 workers.

Mr Justice Kevin Feeney today upheld the challenge by fast food operators to a system, established 60 years ago, of setting minimum pay and conditions for certain sectors of workers.

The judge ruled unconstitutional the laws under which minimum pay and conditions are set under Employment Regulation Orders (ERO) proposed by JLC's for approval by the Labour Court.

The judge granted declarations that the relevant provisions of the 1946 and 1990 Industrial Relations Acts are unconstitutional because they allowed for an impermissible excessive delegation of law-making power concerning pay and conditions to the Labour Court in the absence of any guiding policies or principles.

He ruled the fast food operators had established pay rates and conditions of employment were set for workers in the catering sector under a May 2008 Employment Regulation Order in an arbitrary and unfair manner.

John Grace Fried Chicken Ltd, Cook Street, Cork and its operator John Grace had established that ERO unlawfully interfered with their property rights under the Constitution, he found.

Mr Justice Feeney has adjourned to July 26th next the issue of damages for the fast food operators related to the May 2008 ERO, which was rescinded in 2009.

During the hearing, the court heard workers in the catering sector have the lowest average earnings across any sector.

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Comments (4 of 4)

More of the same

by opus diablos - the regressive hypocrite party

Thu Jul 07, 2011 15:47

Its unconstitutional to give the judge a pay-cut on his astro-stash, but quite ok to slash remedial teachers, nurses, disemployment mal-fit(i aint calling it bene-fit no more). We call it equality before the law, hahahaha.

Not cricket

Justice hangs below the sky, beaming on her servants
Through the blindfold on her eyes, surveying every claimant
The sergeant mounted on his board, surfs upon the crime-wave
Steering through promotion's spray, his sights set on retirement

The judge, like lifeguard on his bench, scans the boiling deep
Steeled to salvage innocents, or gannet on the weak
Solicitors and advocates, they battle in the billow
Cracking bones and precedents, as sacred as the willow

And mercy too, she has her place, an altar to one side
Sometimes she dips her dainty foot into the legal tide
Like venus on her shell, she sirens to the sailor
Mannequined for victims views, she squats upon their failures

Her image nailed into the laws, embedded in that blizzard
Of syllable and antique phrase, wielded by these wizards
Whose tongues tied to careering wheels that grind not slow though fine
They bow and smile and even weep, as crocodiles who dine

And when the scales are torn away, and justice sheaths her sword
Her animatpors they mutate, and opt into the hordes
But as the crystals realign, and sacred guises cover
Wig and gown slip into place to serve the gilded winner

And hanging there beneath the smog, the dove-dung on her breath
Acids eat her limestone skin, while oak-halls frame her death
And flesh and blood that steals to feed, its offspring or its mate
Becomes a rung for talents climb, that never heard of hate.

A little sedition never hurt anyone(important).

To be precise...

by Lisa Simpson

Fri Jul 08, 2011 06:25

Going by the media reports, the Court didn't rule that setting a catering minimum wage is unconstitutional, it ruled that it was set in an unconstitutional manner because the primary legislation is not specific enough.

The same principle has been used to strike down legislation in other areas such as immigration law, where the Minister was given too much arbitrary discretion to exclude and deport.

The Oireachtas can easily rectify this by enacting legislation that sets out clearly the policy and principles under which JLCs can be established. This is where the left should be directing its energies.

Seamus Healy TD calls on Labour Party to Insist on immediate Legislation to Protect the Low-Paid

by Seamus Healy TD

Fri Jul 08, 2011 13:13

Seamus Healy TD calls on Labour Party to Insist on immediate Legislation to Protect the Low-Paid

In the wake of the High Court Decision finding aspects of the current JLC system unconstitutional, I call on the Labour Party to insist on immediate legislation to restore full protection to low-paid workers. Otherwise this ruling will devastate the living standards of the most vulnerable and will undermine compliant employers

I welcome the SIPTU statement which includes: “The Government must urgently introduce legislation to protect the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) wage setting mechanism. In 2008, the previous government had agreed that such legislation would be introduced to ensure the system withstood any such constitutional challenge but failed to do so. The Programme for Government also has a commitment to maintain the JLC system –“

It was widely known that legislation was necessary to protect the constitutionality of the system. But instead of remedying the situation, the government proposed to reduce the incomes of low-paid workers by law and Fine Gael/Labour voted down the Dail Motion proposed by myself and my ULA colleagues to protect the vulnerable.

Labour must now decide between the interests of scrooge employers and the welfare of the low-paid.

Seamus Healy TD 087-2802199

fair enough..

Fri Jul 08, 2011 13:45

,,but I think Labour have made that decision, and signalled it by accepting the obscene salaries they have become accustomed to. Multiple incomes while we subsist on rations, and more slashes coming down the tracks. If Labour gave a damn about the underpaid they would have stayed in opposition and played the longer, strategic game rather than the personally expedient career paths they have. They should be LEADING the left opposition in this country, not propping the propertied.

Examples?

No squeak about the ongoing imperial wars being facilitated through Shannon.
Howlin asking the public for ideas(give me his wages I have ideas) indicates he has yet to read Connolly.Or the fucking news for that matter.
No comment(or did I miss it?)on SIPTU's report on the Great Oil robbery of Shellmullet.
Need I continue?How about the mutter of objection from our Minister for Foreign Affairs for the latest Israeli stunt against our citizens in international waters?And the obvious relief nobody in the media demands he does his job.

Forget Labour Seamus, its SUNK.
They are well rewarded for putting their bright red lipstick on the corporate pig. In fact, they ARE that lipstick.

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High Court rules in favour of fast-food operators on JLCs

Comments (4 of 4)