ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Decision Reference: ADJ-00001081

Complaints for Resolution:

At:                          Workplace Relations Commission, Haddington Road, Dublin 4.

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 09/05/2016

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Rosaleen Glackin

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 41(4) of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015, and following the referral of the complaints to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complains and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaints

Background.

The Complainant has been employed by a named Unemployment Centre Ltd on a Community Unemployment Scheme since February 2007. The Complainant referred complaints to the Workplace Relations Commission on 24^th December 2014 alleging the Named Respondent had breached Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 – 2016, had breached Section 3 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 – 2015, had breached Sections 17 and 21 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 – 2015 and had breached Section 9 of the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act, 2003 – 2015.

Preliminary Issue.

The same complaints were lodged against three named Respondents – A Minister of a Government Department – The Trustees of the Unemployment Centre and the Unemployment Centre itself where the Complainant is employed on a Community Employment Scheme.

The Legal Representative of the Complainant stated at the Hearing that they were not able to say if the Minister of a Government Department was the Employer but that the Unemployment Centre was funded by the Government Department.

Decision.

The Complainant has been employed by the Named Unemployment Centre Ltd since 2007 and has received a Contract of Employment from her Employer in accordance with the Community Employment Procedures Manual. Community Employment Schemes, which are managed by a Sponsoring Organisation, are funded on a yearly basis by the Department of Social Protection. The objectives of the Scheme are to “enhance the employability and mobility of disadvantaged and unemployed persons by providing work experience and training opportunities for them within their communities”

Contracts are entered into by the Department and the Sponsoring Organisation in relation to the procedures of the Scheme for a period of 52 weeks and the role of the Department is to provide funding to the Sponsoring Organisation to meet the wages of the project participants. Therefore the Department is not the Employer of the Project Participant.

Accordingly the complaints against the Minister of a Government Department are not well founded as there was no evidence presented to me at the Hearing that the Minister is the correct Respondent for the purposes of these complaints.

Date:___3^rd August 2016