25,000 hotel workers in Ireland will have pay rises they were expecting delayed after the High Court set aside an order awarding them the wage increases.
The Irish Hotels Federation and Clare hotelier Michael Vaughan had challenged the right of Joint Labour Committees and the Labour Court to set minimum wages and employment conditions for workers in the hotel sector.
They argued that the Joint Labour Committee mechanism breached their constitutional rights.
The also argued that the procedures used by the Joint Labour Committee and the Labour Court is deciding what wage increase would be appropriate were unfair and 'perfunctory'.
They had told the High Court that the Irish Hotels Federation had prepared an economic report on the potential impact of wage increases on the hotel sector.
However, this report was not included in material forwarded to the Labour Court for its consideration prior to approving the wage increases proposed by the Joint Labour Committee.
Today, the High Court set aside the proposed Employment Regulation Order that would have awarded wage increases for workers from 16 November last.
It is understood that the State conceded that there was a problem with the procedures because the economic report had not been forwarded to the Labour Court.
No order was made to remit the matter for rehearing - so as of yet it is unclear whether the matter will be reheard by the Joint Labour Committee or the Labour Court.
However, the constitutional challenge to the Joint Labour Committee process has now been withdrawn. Had that gone ahead, there was a possibility that the whole Joint Labour Committee system of setting wages and conditions in low pay sectors could have been struck down.
That could have affected up to 250,000 workers in sectors including hairdressing, contract cleaning, security and mushroom picking.
The Irish Hotels Federation says that the case was never about challenging wage agreements but was about what it says were unfair and unjust processes at the hotel Joint Labour Committee and at the Labour Court.
The State has agreed to pay costs.
