'Banshees' co-producer wins Labour Court battle with movie stagehand

Gordon Deegan

The co-producer of the multi-Oscar nominated Banshees of Inisherin and Netflix hit, Valhalla has secured a victory in its ongoing workplace dispute battle with a group of film set workers.

This follows the Labour Court finding that Metropolitan Films Productions Ltd was not the employer of film worker, Stephen Preston who was represented by the Irish Film Workers Association (IFWA) in the case.

As a result, deputy chairwoman at the Labour Court, Katie Connolly has found that the Labour Court has no jurisdiction to hear stagehand, Mr Preston’s substantive workplace complaints against the Co Wicklow-based movie firm as the wrong company was pleaded in the proceedings.

The Labour Court ruling follows a large number of Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) decisions issued in December which awarded a cumulative total of €434,216 to a group of IFWA members against Metropolitan Films International Ltd.

In one of the cases, Mr Preston was awarded €7,227 after the WRC found Metropolitan Films International Ltd to be in breach of the Terms of Employment Act. The case before the Labour Court concerned a separate and earlier case Mr Preston had brought against Metropolitan Film Productions Ltd to the WRC where he was unsuccessful in his claim.

Employer

In the tranche of IFWA cases at the WRC, the WRC Adjudicator in the cases rejected an argument by Metropolitan Films International Ltd that it was never the employer of the workers concerned and the WRC didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the cases.

The Labour Court ruling may now give the movie firm grounds for optimism that the WRC awards can be overturned on appeal to the Labour Court.

However, the production company remained tight-lipped today. A spokeswoman for Metropolitan Films would only say that “it is not our practice to comment on matters that are currently the subject of legal proceedings”.

Industrial Relations Office with the IFWA, Liz Murray said the IFWA was unable to cross-examine the other side in the Labour Court Preston case and, as a result, the principles of natural justice didn’t apply in the case.

Ms Murray said that Mr Preston is considering appealing the Labour Court ruling to the High Court and she said that Mr Preston indicated that he would have to consider the matter carefully.

Ms Murray said that she wasn’t disappointed by the Labour Court ruling.

She said: “It was a foregone conclusion. When the Labour Court doesn’t take into account the sworn evidence of a person appearing before it and that person can’t cross-examine someone from the other side, I didn’t expect anything else in terms of a decision.”