Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

AA Pharmacist

A Provider of Health Care

Representatives

Employee Relations Manager

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-00015471-001

01/11/2017

The complainant is a pharmacist and is employed by the respondent since October 2006. He claims that he did not receive a statement in writing concerning his conditions of employment.

The complainant states that is employed by the respondent as a sessional pharmacist since October 2006. He is now near retirement age and when he enquired about his pension he was informed that the respondent had not enrolled him in the pension scheme. He said he was neither informed or advised about this when he took up the employment with the respondent. He said he did not receive a statement in writing about the terms of his employment. He said he did not sign any document to state that he had accepted any special terms and conditions of employment. He said that the employer stripped him of his statutory right to be in a pension scheme like his other colleagues working with him.

The complainant submitted that he enquired about his contract of employment and a number of locations and in response to one of his emails he received a written statement of his conditions of employment in November 2013.

The respondent submitted that the complainant submitted his complaint outside the statutory time limit for referring the case. Section 41(6) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 provides that a complaint must be submitted to the director-general within six months of the date of the contravention of the act which would have taken place two months after the complainant commenced in October 2006.

The complainant was employed as a part-time sessional pharmacist in October 2006. At the time of his engagement the complainant along with similar pharmacist were deemed to be on a contract for service with an enhanced rate of pay, therefore they were not considered to be an employee for the pension scheme.

It was submitted that the complainant has referred the complaint pursuant to the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 claiming he did not receive a statement in writing regarding his terms of employment. It is accepted that the respondent did not furnish the complainant with the statement of his terms and conditions when he commenced employment. The respondent had been in negotiations with the trade union for many years trying to agree a formal contract of employment for these pharmacists. The negotiations were ongoing and, in the interim. all pharmacists comprehended by the negotiations were issued a statement of their existing terms of employment in 2013. It is submitted that the respondent fulfilled their obligations pursuant to the Act and that the complainant received a copy of the terms of employment in 2013 and his complaint about a breach of the Act must be rejected.

The first matter I have to consider is whether the complaint has been referred to the Director General of the WRC within the statutory time limit set out in the Act.

 A copy of the complainant’s terms and conditions was provided which was signed by the respondent on the 13th of November 2013. The complainant accepts that he received a copy on this date. However, the complaint was not presented to the Director General until 1st November 2017.   Section 41(6) and (8) sets out that complaints must be referred within a 6-month period or for reasonable cause within 12 months:

S 41(6) states “an adjudication officer shall not entertain a complaint referred to him or her under this section if it has been presented to the Director General after the expiration of the period of 6 months beginning on the date of the contravention to which the complaint relates”.

 I, therefore, declare that I do not have jurisdiction to hear this complaint as it does not comply with Section 41(6) or Section 41(8) of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 as it has been referred outside the statutory time limits.

I find I have no jurisdiction in the matter as the complaint was referred outside the statutory time limits.

Terms of Employment Act. Time Limits, no jurisdiction.