In 2003, the Labour Court recommended that Gresham Hotel pay €20,000 ex gratia to be distributed among the original 19 or 20 staff affected by a service-charge dispute. It also recommended retaining the arrangements then in place. The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union argued the 1998 arrangements capped the number of staff moving between service-charge pools. The Court said staff had misunderstood information provided by the company, which should have corrected that understanding before the ballot. The recommendation was dated 10 March 2003.