ADJ-00006384

Complainant

Respondent

Parties

A Social Care Worker

A Social Work Service

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969

CA-00008715-001

12/12/2016

The Complainant has alleged that she has been subjected to unfair treatment by her employer, the Respondent regarding workload and compensation for working hours. The Respondent has employed the complainant since 2000.

The Complainant is claiming that she usually worked 73.5 hours per fortnight. The complainant claims that her roster was changed to 78 hours on a temporary basis to allow her time to complete tasks which she did not have time to attend to during her extremely busy shift, it is her contention that this increase in hours was misrepresented to her. The Complainant claims that the change in roster did nothing to assist the Complainant and only exacerbated an already difficult situation eventually leading to the Complainant reverting to the 73.5 hours.

The Complainant now contends that she is owed for an additional 149 hours for the 2015/2016 period which equates to a monetary value of €3,181.15 as she did not receive extra payment for the extra hours.

The Complainant has also stated that she was doing these hours as she was short staffed. The Complainants states that she was left alone every night with no support and no alternative but to address the needs of all six residents in her care.

The Respondent claims that following discussions it was agreed to increase the complainants contracted hours from 73.5 to 78 hours per fortnight on a temporary basis from the 19^th of April 2015 to the 18^th of October 2015. This arrangement was further extended from the 19^th of October 2015 to the 4^th of February 2017.

The Respondent states that the Complainants roster remained the same with the additional 4.5 hours to be managed by her. The additional hours were to allow the complainant attend to completing person centred plans for the people in her care, supporting their appointments and other needs as they arose. The arrangement ceased at the request of the complainant and her hours formally reverted back to 73.5 hours per fortnight in November 2016.

The Respondent states that the Complainant received payment for all contracted hours.

The Respondent claims that the expectations of the Complainant in relation to her workload is consistent with Social Care Workers throughout the Organisation. It is expected that the core responsibilities of the Social Care Worker are completed within the rostered hours.

The Adjudicator finds that the Complainant got paid for hours at standard time as the Respondent contends that her contractual hours were extended to 78. These hours have been paid by the employer. Where the hours were in excess of the 78 hours the complainant would receive time in lieu.

Therefore the Adjudicator finds that the complainant was not entitled to both payment and time in lieu for the extra time worked during the periods where the complainant worked up to 78 hours.

The dispute is in relation to the understanding of non-contracted hours and payments for same. The employee contends due to the employers unrealistic work load she had to work extra hours. The employer gave her 4.5 hours per fortnight extra hours. Based on the evidence presented it is reasonable to expect the employee to get her work done in these hours.

The Adjudicator finds that the complainant received pay for the hours worked and that the Respondent organisation have an approved time in lieu policy in place for additional hours therefore her claim is not upheld.