The Labour Court has reported a workload increase of 64 per cent since 2000 in its annual report for 2005, which was published today.
While 90 per cent of the court's work is still rooted in industrial relations disputes it is having to increasingly deal with various employment right statutes which have "added functions to the court's remit in recent years," according to chairman Kevin Duffy.
Trade union and employer body complaints concerning breaches of employment agreements from a significant part of these duties and accounted for 194 cases last year, compared to 44 in 2000.
The enactment of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act 2001 and the Industrial Relations (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004 made provision for the referral of disputes where the employer did not engage in collective bargaining. There were 36 such cases in 2005.
These, according to Mr Duffy, are particularly time consuming because under the Act of 2004 the court is obliged to give them priority, which results in a "disproportionate" amount of work for the court.
The Court has also seen a continuation in the reduction of the amount of 'equality cases' referred to it. The amendment to the Equality Act, 2004 that provided for the first hearing in such cases to be referred to the Equality Tribunal has contributed significantly to this.
The Labour Court is now an appeals court in this instance and only two per cent of its referrals concerned discriminatory dismissal.
Mr Duffy says that the reduction in this area is counteracted by amendments made to the Protection of Employees (Part-time work) Act, 2001 and the Protection of Employees (Fixed-term work) Act, 2003. These have raised "novel issues of Irish and European Law" before the court.
