ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00007820

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Anonymised Parties	A Bar Man	A Hospitality Company

Representatives

Appeared In Person

No Appearance by or on behalf of the Respondent

Complaint:

Act	Complaint 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-00010479-001	29/03/2017

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 14/08/2017

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Patsy Doyle

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, and Section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997, following the referral of the complaint to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint).

Background:

The Complainant worked as a Bar Man for the Respondent from 14 July 2016 to 9 December 2016. He lodged a complaint with the WRC on 29 March, 2017 seeking cesser pay .There was no appearance by the Respondent at hearing.

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The Complainant worked as a Barman for the Respondent Hospitality Company from 14 July 2016 to 9 December 2016. He submitted that he had ongoing difficulties with his salary amounts as he was working for a half hour after last call without payment. He received 369.68 euro for an average 39.70 working week .He did not have a contract of employment.

The Complainant told the hearing that he did not get break time during the week.

On December 8, 2016, his Manager did not engage on the salary issues and the Complainant submitted his two weeks’ notice period of his intention to leave the employment.

Later that night, the Complainant was told by a fellow Barman to go home and not to return .He asked for his holiday pay and P 45 .He did not receive a response. The complainant submitted that he received a P45 detailing the date of cessation of employment as 25 December 2016 .He contended that he was owed 66.1 hours annual leave which amounted to 628.52 euro.

The Complainant relocated his home and is currently undertaking a Carpentry course.

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

There was no appearance by or on behalf of the complainant at hearing.

Findings and Conclusions:

I have given careful consideration to the complainant’s submissions. I understand that the Business is still open and trading. I neither have not received any communication from the Respondent in this case.

At the hearing, I sought confirmation of the Complainants pay slips and P 45. These were submitted two weeks after the hearing and copied for information purposes to the Respondent .They did not illicit a response.

I have found that the Complainant presented a credible case which was uncontested. He submitted that he had been denied holidays but he recalled that another employee had been granted leave to visit Scotland in July/August 2016.

Compensation on censer of employment.

— F12 [ (1) (a) Where —

(I) an employee ceases to be employed, and

(ii) the whole or any portion of the annual leave in respect of the relevant period remains to be granted to the employee,

the employee shall, as compensation for the loss of that annual leave, be paid by his or her employer an amount equal to the pay, calculated at the normal weekly rate or, as the case may be, at a rate proportionate to the normal weekly rate, that he or she would have received had he or she been granted that annual leave. Rests and intervals at work.

Section 12 of the Act provides that -

— (1) An employer shall not require an employee to work for a period of more than 4 hours and 30 minutes without allowing him or her a break of at least 15 minutes.

(2) An employer shall not require an employee to work for a period of more than 6 hours without allowing him or her break of at least 30 minutes; such a break may include the break referred to in subsection (1).

I note that the complainant is aggrieved that he was denied rest breaks during his daily work, but he did not incorporate this complaint on his complaint form. While, I appreciate that the complaint form is not a statutory declaration, I find that the Respondent was not on notice of this complaint and I have decided to disallow the submission in that regard.

I have found that the Complaint with respect to cesser pay to be well founded.

Decision:

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

Section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 requires that I make a decision in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under the Act.

I order the Respondent to pay the Complainant 628.52 euro in compensation for the refusal to grant cesser pay in accordance with Section 23 of the Act.

Dated: 29 September 2017

Key Words:

Annual Leave on cessation of employment