Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

An Estimator

A Crash Repair and Auto Body Repair Service

Representatives

Northside Resource Centre

Act

Complaint Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 11 of the Minimum Notice & Terms of Employment Act, 1973

CA-00015755-002

13/11/2017

The complainant worked as an Estimator with the respondent for 4 years. After a down turn in business the complainant was told there was no work, he was called in for a meeting with the owners and told that his job was terminated with immediate effect. The complainant is seeking his entitlements under the Minimum Notice & Terms of Employment Act, 1973.

The respondent failed to engage.

The complainant worked as an Estimator with the respondent, a crash repair and auto body repair service, for 4 years starting on 16 September 2013 and ending on 2 August 2017. He was paid €643.50 gross per week.

The complainant said that in June 2017 the business was going through a slack period resulting in late payment of wages to staff and some staff had been placed on three-day weeks. On 12 June 2017 the complainant and another colleague, the office administrator, were told to go home and that they would need to sign on at their local Department of Social Protection (DSP) office and that the respondent would be in contact by Friday 16 June 2017 to let them know about their return to work arrangements going forward. That Friday came and went, and there was no contact from the respondent. The complainant rang the owner several times on Saturday 17 June 2017 but got no answer. He sent a text to the owner on the Sunday to ask about arrangements for the coming week and he got a reply from the respondent to say that he would contact the complainant the following day. However, no contact was made.

On 21 June 2017 the complainant and his colleague went to the respondent’s business to get documents signed for the DSP. The complainant said that the owner was “very off hand” when questioned about when they could expect to return to work. On 27 June 2017 the three days wages owed to the complainant for early June were paid into his account. On 3 July the complainant sent a text message to the respondent looking for a return to work date. He received no reply.

On 2 August 2017 the complainant attended a meeting with the respondent at the company’s office and at this meeting he was told that things had not improved and that his position was being made redundant. The complainant said that this was the first mention of redundancy.

The complainant informs me that after months of coming and going, he finally received his statutory redundancy payment on 15 December 2017 by the Social Protection Fund.

The respondent did not attend the adjudication nor did it send in a submission.

The Relevant Law

Section 4 of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973 provides that,

4. Minimum period of notice

(1) An employer shall, in order to terminate the contract of employment of an employee who has been in his continuous service for a period of thirteen weeks or more, give to that employee a minimum period of notice calculated in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) of this section.

(2) The minimum notice to be given by an employer to terminate the contract of employment of his employee shall be—

[…]

(b) if the employee has been in the continuous service of his employer for two years or more, but less than five years, two weeks.

[…]

Based on the uncontroverted evidence of the complainant at the hearing, I find that the complainant was approximately one month away from four years’ service with the respondent at the time he was let go on 2 August 2017. I am satisfied that the complainant’s claim is well founded and he was denied his statutory notice period of two weeks.

Section 11 of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act, 1973 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint in accordance with the relevant redress options.

I have found that the complaint is well founded and I order the respondent to pay €1,287 (one thousand, two hundred and eighty-seven euro) to the complainant as compensation amounting to two weeks’ pay within 42 days of the date of this decision for the breach of Section 4(2) of the Act.

Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act - compensation for the breach of the Act