Employees’ claim dismissed

A GROUP of more than 50 casual employees in Jury’s Hotel had a claim over service charges dismissed yesterday on the grounds that industrial relations problems were not a matter for the courts.

Mr Justice Paul Butler said the employees were “casual work” employees of Jury’s Hotel Group engaged on a function-to-function basis.

The employees’ claim arose out of the distribution of the service charge of 12.5% among the staff in the banqueting department of Jury’s.

“It is certainly not a matter for the courts to devise a system of distribution. To do so would be to enter into the field of industrial relations. The court is not a mediator,” the judge said.