In 2002, the Labour Court recommended that Limerick County Council and Services Industrial Professional Technical Union follow the same approach as an earlier recommendation on a meal allowance claim for general operatives, gangers and plant operatives. General operatives received an eating-on-site allowance of €1.43 per day, while the union sought a meal allowance regardless of whether they worked with a craftperson. The Council said the existing allowance was appropriate. The recommended approach was to address the allowance anomaly through parallel benchmarking, with a possible return to the Court if the issue remained unresolved. The recommendation was signed on 27 November 2002.