ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Decision Reference: ADJ-00003752
Complaint(s)/Dispute(s) for Resolution:
Act | Complaint/Dispute Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 11 of the Minimum Notice & Terms of Employment Act, 1973 | CA-00005504-001 | 26/06/2016 |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 11 of the Minimum Notice & Terms of Employment Act, 1973 | CA-00005505-001 | 26/06/2016 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 10/10/2016
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Emer O'Shea
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41(4) of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 [and/or Section 8(1B) of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977, and/or Section 9 of the Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) Act, 1984, and/or Section 79 of the Employment Equality Act, 1998, and/or Section 25 of the Equal Status Act, 2000] following the referral of the complaint(s)/dispute(s) to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint(s)/dispute(s) and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint(s)/dispute(s).
Attendance at Hearing:
By | Complainant | Respondent |
Parties | Driver | Transport Company |
Complainant’s Submission and Presentation:
I worked as a HGV driver with the respondent for thirteen and a half years approximately. On 11th February 2016, I received a Notice of Termination letter from my employer dated 5th February 2016. This letter stated that my employment would cease on the 12th March 2016. However, on the 14th March my employer contacted me and informed me that he would not have to let me go and my service with the company would continue. He offered me a job driving a milk tanker to Omagh and that this job would be run up until October. I agreed to do this run. Then on the morning of Thursday the 12th May 2016, when I arrived back in the yard having been to Omagh, my employer called me into his office and informed me that I would be laid off that Saturday, 14th May 2016. I was not given any satisfactory or reasonable explanation. I ceased employment with the respondent on 14th May. I did not receive any formal Notice of Termination from my former employer that my employment would cease on the 14th May 2016. I had worked with the company for 13.5 years and it later emerged that I had been replaced by another Whitty employee who had been with the company for less that three years |
The claimant asserted that he had an expectation of ongoing employment at least until Autumn and would not have accepted the respondent’s offer of the 12th.March 2016 if it were on a week to week basis. He asserted that the respondent assured him his service with the company would not be broken. He alleged he was let go with only two days notice on the 14th.May 2016 and submitted that he was entitled to full 6 weeks notice given his 13.5 years service with the company.
Respondent’s Submission and Presentation:
The respondent denied that he was in breach of the Act and advanced that the company had gone into receivership in 2015 having lost a major contract with a bread manufacturer. The company had debts of €170,000.He submitted that he spoke to the claimant on the 14th.March and told him he had a few weeks work which he could give him on a week to week basis. He submitted that the claimant had acknowledged that he received notice of termination of employment on the 5th.February 2016 and he understood that said notice still stood and that he had met his obligations under the Act.
Decision:
I have reviewed the evidence presented at the hearing and noted the dispute between the parties with respect to the status of the claimant’s ongoing employment - the respondent insisting that it was on a week to week basis and the claimant categorically denying same. I found the claimant’s evidence that he had been reassured that his service would be continuous and would not be broken by the 2 day interruption in employment to be credible and compelling. Consequently I find that the claimant would have been entitled to fresh and certain notice of a revised termination date and accordingly I am upholding his complaint. I require the respondent to pay the claimant 6 weeks pay within 4 weeks of the date of this decision.
Dated: 15 December 2016