The Labour Relations Commission

We have received a number of queries from clients who are confused when getting involved with the states Industrial Relations and Employment Law machinery. The following article attempts to briefly summarise the role of the Labour Relations Commission and how it relates to Rights Commissioners and the Labour Court.

The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) was established in January 1991. It gets its legal status from Section 24 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990 which describes its role as follows "promote the development and improvement of Irish industrial relations policies, procedures and practices through the provision of appropriate, timely and effective services to employers, trade unions and employees". In order to fulfil its mandate the LRC provides a variety of services including:

• Industrial relations conciliation service
• Industrial relations advisory, development and research service
• Rights Commissioner service
• Assistance to Joint Labour Committees and Joint Industrial Councils in the exercise of their functions (follow this link for more on JLC)
• Industrial relations mediation service

The LRC also carries out other activities, which attempt to improve industrial relations in Ireland, these include:

• The review and monitoring any developments in industrial relations
• The preparation of codes of practice relevant to industrial relations
• Conducting research into industrial relations
• Organising seminars/conferences on industrial relations or human resource management (HRM) issues.

Most businesses only have dealings with the LRC when some form of conflict has developed in the workplace and attempts to solve the problem locally have failed. The LRC may be then be asked by one or both disputing parties to provide a service.

In some instances the LRC may be asked to appoint a Rights Commissioner to investigate a dispute. This normally happens when the dispute relates to grievances and claims made by individuals or small groups of workers. Follow this link for more on Rights Commissioners

The other main service provided by the LRC is its Conciliation Service. Conciliation involves the "voluntary" coming together of parties in a dispute with a view to resolving the conflict. When requested the LRC provides a professional external conciliator, called an Industrial Relations Officer (IRO) who gets involved in resolving the dispute.

Usually the IRO conducts a series of meetings that generally take place on the same day although some conciliation processes can go on much longer. Initially they chair a joint meeting with the parties representing the employees and the employer. The IRO will then meets the parties separately. The first meeting helps the IRO to hear both parties' positions and the subsequent meetings try and tease out a mutually acceptable solution. If the IRO fails to resolve the dispute then the parties can refer the dispute to the Labour Court.

For more information or to find out more about our services here at Resolve HR please Contact Us