ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION/RECOMMENDATION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00008059

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Anonymised Parties	Cabin Supervisor	Airline

Complaint(s):

Act	Complaint/Dispute Reference No.	Date of Receipt
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997	CA-00010699-001	07/04/2017

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 02/08/2017

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: John Tierney

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 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).

Background:

The Claimant is claiming a breach of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The Claimant stated that on 31 March 2017 he discovered that in his roster he has been allocated a week of annual leave (A/L) for 24 – 28 April 2017. He was not consulted about nor given one months’ notice according to the 1997 Act. He wrote to the Respondent’s HR department but received no response. On recently checking his roster again he discover that the annual leave was cancelled and moved forward to 16 – 20 April 20176. Again without consultation.

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

A memo was issued by the roster department to all crew reminding them that A/L changeover from fiscal to calendar year is taking place. Memo advised crew that A/L applications were being accepted for April and that in the event of a lack of a sufficient number of applications being received than A/L may be allocated by the Respondent. Further memos were issued on 10 February, 20 & 28 March (copies provided to the Hearing)

The Respondent employs 7,028 staff. Days requested were 9,448, days not requested were 1,918.

The Respondent present a record of correspondence and contact with the Claimant in regard to his annual leave.

Decision:

Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint(s)/dispute(s) in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under Schedule 6 of that Act.

I have considered the submissions of both parties. Memos were issued to staff about the application and allocation of annual leave during the change over from fiscal to calendar year. This in itself was always going to be complicated given the numbers involved and as a result a series of memo were issued to staff to deal with it. In these circumstances I do not believe a breach of the 1997 Act took place. The claim fails.

Dated: 29/11/2017

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: John Tierney

Key Words:

Consultation on annual leave.