ADJUDICATION OFFICER RECOMMENDATION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00009496

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Anonymised Parties	A chef	A sports club

Representatives

n/a

Honorary Club Secretary.

Complaint(s):

Act	Complaint/Dispute Reference No.	Date of Receipt
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 7 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994	CA-00012481-004	13/07/2017

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 15/09/2017

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Jim Dolan

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 complainant was not issued with a statement of the particulars of his employment (a contract).

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The complainant commenced employment with the respondent on 24^th August 2016 and left of his own accord on 28^th June 2017. On commencing employment the complainant did not receive a contract and after a period of time asked his employer for a contract and a pay rise. A contract was presented to him to read over, this contract was not accurate and contained some errors that the complainant pointed out to his employer. The manager agreed to rectify these and issue an amended contract to the complainant. The complainant never saw the contract again.

The complainant claims that he was unsure of his actual terms and conditions of employment and asked several times for a contract of employment without success.

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

The respondent accepts that a contract was not issued to the complainant and went to some length to explain why this had happened. The subject of the issuing of contracts would normally be addressed by the club General Manager who had resigned around this time and the task was then passed to the Catering Manageress who for various reasons had been absent from work for a considerable amount of time and failed to complete the task of issuing a contract to the complainant.

Findings and Conclusions:

It is accepted by both complainant and respondent that no statement of Terms and Conditions of Employment were issued to the complainant.

An employer, under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, is obliged to provide an employee with a statement in writing no later than two months after the commencement of employment containing the following particulars:

I. The full names of both employer and employee.

II. The address of the employer.

III. The place of work or, alternatively, a statement specifying that the employee is required or permitted to work at various places.

IV. The title of the job or nature of the work.

V. The date of commencement of the contract of employment.

VI. In the case of temporary contracts, the expected duration or in the case of a fixed term contract the date on which the contract expires.

VII. The rate or method of calculation of the employee’s remuneration and details as to what intervals the payment of remuneration shall be made.

Any terms or conditions relating to hours of work including overtime.

IX. Any terms or conditions relating to paid leave (other than paid sick leave).

X. Any terms or conditions relating to sick leave or for payment due to incapacity as a result of injury.

XI. Details of pensions or pension schemes.

XII. The period of notice which the employee is required to give and entitled to receive whether by statute or contract. If a specified period of notice is not provided for the method or manner by which notice is calculated is to be specified.

Reference must be made to any collective agreements which directly affect the terms and conditions of the employee’s employment including, where the employer is not a party to such agreements, particulars of the bodies or institutions by whom they were made. This requirement only applies to contracts entered into after the commencement of the Act (16^th May 1994).
If after the commencement of the Act an employee is required to work to work outside the state for a minimum period of one month the following details are to be given to the employee or added to the above-mentioned statement:

I. The period of employment outside the state.

II. The currency in which the employee is to remunerated in respect of that period.

III. Any benefits in cash or kind for the employee while working outside the state.

IV. The terms and conditions applying to the employee’s repatriation.

XV. Employers are obliged to notify employees of any changes in their terms and conditions of employment as soon as possible after the change but not later than one month thereafter.

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.

The complainant suffered no financial loss through the respondent’s failure to provide him with a written statement of the terms and conditions of employment.

I declare that the complaint is well found and recommend that the respondent pay to the complainant a sum of €500 (five hundred euro)by way of compensation.

Dated: 10^th October 2017

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Jim Dolan

Key Words:

Terms and conditions of employment, failure to provide written statement.