ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00011133
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Anonymised Parties | A chef | A café / restaurant |
Complaint(s):
Act | Complaint/Dispute Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 | CA-00014863-001 | 09/10/2017 |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 | CA-00014863-002 | 09/10/2017 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 29/11/2017
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Catherine Byrne
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 these complaints have been assigned to me by the Director General. I conducted a hearing on November 29th 2017 and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present any evidence relevant to the complaints.
As the Respondent was not present at the hearing, I established that he was properly on notice. I confirmed that the notice of the date of the hearing was sent to the address of the Respondent as it is given on the website of the Companies Registration Office.
Background:
This complaint under section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 concerns the failure of the Respondent to pay the Complainant his wages for the last six weeks of his employment. |
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
When he was recruited for the job of head chef in July 2016, the complainant said that respondent was up-grading from a café-type business to a full restaurant, with a new food offering, new name and re-vamped premises. The café closed, work commenced on the re-construction and the new restaurant opened in December 2016. Things went reasonably well until the summer of 2017, when the complainant became aware that suppliers had not been paid. He said that he brought this to the attention of the respondent, who said that there wasn’t a problem with money, but that he was simply late with the payments. The complainant said that the situation with regard to the non-payment of suppliers continued, and then he didn’t get paid himself. At the end of July, he said that he handed in his notice and told the respondent that he would work until he found someone else to take over. When two of the other chefs left, he said that he couldn’t run the kitchen on his own and he decided to finish up on August 2nd. He couldn’t contact the owner and he locked the restaurant and put the keys into the letter box. The complainant claims that he can’t provide copies of payslips, because he said that the password on the computer payslip portal has been changed. He provided printouts of his electronic bank statements which showed a net amount of €2,049.46 being transferred from the Respondent’s bank account to his bank account in March and May 2017. He said that he wasn’t paid for the last six weeks of his employment, an amount equivalent to €3,000 net. |
Summary of Respondent’s Case:
The Respondent did not attend the hearing. |
Findings and Conclusions:
Based on the Complainant’s submission and in the absence of any information from the respondent, I find that the complainant has not been paid for the last six weeks of his employment with the respondent which ended on August 2nd 2017. As he was not dismissed, he is not entitled to notice and therefore, I have concluded that there is no basis to his complaint that he was not paid in lieu of notice. |
Decision:
Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaints in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under Schedule 6 of that Act.
I find that the complaint made under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 in respect of non-payment of wages is well-founded. The respondent shall pay to the complainant wages in respect of the last six weeks of his employment amounting to €3,000 net of statutory deductions. Payment is to be transferred to the complainant’s bank account within six weeks of the date of this decision. |
Dated: 5th April 2018
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Catherine Byrne
Key Words:
Non-payment of wages |