Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

An Accountant

A Cooperative

Act

Complaint 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-00018662-001

23/04/2018

The complainant was employed by the respondent from the 27th of February 2017 until the 29th of March 2018 when she resigned from the employment. She is claiming that the employer breached the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994 in not informing her about the conditions attaching to the payment of the bonus.

The complainant submitted that on the commencement of her employment she requested that the terms of the bonus be included in her contract. She was informed that she would be given a letter following the satisfactory completion of her probationary period about the bonus scheme. She got a letter informing her that she had satisfactorily completed her probationary period, but she did not receive any letter about the bonus scheme.

In accordance with the terms of her contract, she gave the respondent 2 months’ notice on the 7th of February that she was resigning from the employment. On the 28th of March 2018 most of the other employees received their bonuses. She believed that she was entitled to a bonus as she had worked a full year with the company.

At her exit interview she raised the bonus issue with the respondent and she was informed that once she handed in her notice she was not entitled to a bonus. She was informed that everyone in the company are given letters informing them of the terms and conditions attaching to the bonus. The complainant said that she never got the letter. She was then provided with a copy of the letter where the conditions of the bonus payment were set out.

She submits that by not providing her with the terms of the bonus there is a breach of the Act.

The respondent said that all employees are issued with letters in April each year outlining the conditions for the bonus payment plan. She said a letter issued to the complainant through her manager in April 2017 and there is no reason to believe that the manager did not give her the letter. She said that the complainant was not entitled to the bonus as she had served notice of the termination of her employment before the due date of the bonus. The condition regarding bonus payments applies to all employees who resign in this period and the complainant was not the only exiting employee who forfeited the bonus.

The complainant states that she was not provided with the terms for the payment of the bonus. The respondent submits that she was provided with a separate letter to the contract concerning the bonus.

This is a complaint under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994 which provides the following statement should be provided to an employee:

3.—(1) “An employer shall, not later than 2 months after the commencement of an employee’s employment with the employer, give or cause to be given to the employee a statement in writing containing the following particulars of the terms of the employee’s employment, that is to say—

(a) the full names of the employer and the employee,

b) the address of the employer in the State or, where appropriate, the address of the principal place of the relevant business of the employer in the State or the registered office (within the meaning of the Companies Act, 1963),

(c) the place of work or, where there is no fixed or main place of work, a statement specifying that the employee is required or permitted to work at various places,

(d) the title of the job or nature of the work for which the employee is employed,

(e) the date of commencement of the employee’s contract of employment,

(f) in the case of a temporary contract of employment, the expected duration thereof or, if the contract of employment is for a fixed term, the date on which the contract expires,

(fa) a reference to any registered employment agreement or employment regulation order which applies to the employee and confirmation of where the employee may obtain a copy of such agreement or order,

(g) the rate or method of calculation of the employee’s remuneration and the pay reference period for the purposes of the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000,

(ga) that the employee may, under section 23 of the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000, request from the employer a written statement of the employee’s average hourly rate of pay for any pay reference period as provided in that section,

(h) the length of the intervals between the times at which remuneration is paid, whether a week, a month or any other interval,

(i) any terms or conditions relating to hours of work (including overtime),

(j) any terms or conditions relating to paid leave (other than paid sick leave),

(k) any terms or conditions relating to—

(i) incapacity for work due to sickness or injury and paid sick leave, and

(ii) pensions and pension schemes,

(l) the period of notice which the employee is required to give and entitled to receive (whether by or under statute or under the terms of the employee’s contract of employment) to determine the employee’s contract of employment or, where this cannot be indicated when the information is given, the method for determining such periods of notice,

(m) a reference 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.”

I note that the complainant was provided with a written statement of her terms of employment. I am satisfied that there is no statutory obligation under the above S. 3(1) for the employer to include the terms of the bonus scheme in the statement. I find that the complaint is not well founded.

I find that the complaint under Section 3(1) is not well founded.