ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION/RECOMMENDATION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00013587
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Anonymised Parties | A worker | A leisure company (dissolved) |
Complaint(s):
Act | Complaint/Dispute Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 39 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967 | CA-00017754-001 | 5/Mar/2018 |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 11 of the Minimum Notice & Terms of Employment Act, 1973 | CA-00017754-002 | 5/Mar/2018 |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 | CA-00017754-003 | 5/Mar/2018 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 22/May/2018
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Stephen Bonnlander
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 and Section 39 of the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 – 2014,following the referral of the complaints to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaints and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaints.
Background:
The complainant referred all three complaints, together with three identical complaints against a related company in the same ownership which will be subject to a separate decision, on 5 March 2018. On 19 April 2018, the complaints were delegated to me for hearing and decision by the Director General. A hearing was then scheduled for 22 May 2018, the earliest possible date in keeping with a fair period of notice to the parties. On 25 April 2018, the respondent company was dissolved. |
Findings and Conclusions:
A dissolved company ceases to have legal existence and therefore cannot be a respondent to proceedings under employment legislation any longer. An example of this is the decision of the Labour Court in Michael Gannon Landscaping Ltd v. Janis Golubevs, MWD126, in which Ms Jenkinson, Deputy Chairwoman of the Court, held that The Court was informed that the respondent Company has been dissolved. Consequently, the Respondent Company in this case has ceased to have any legal existence and its assets (if any) have been vested in the Minister for Finance by virtue of Section 28 of the State Property Act, 1954. In the absence of any statutory provision giving a dissolved Company a legal status for the purpose of proceedings under the Act, the Court has no jurisdiction to hear this appeal. The Court determines accordingly. The complainant and her representatives were aware of the legal dissolution of the within respondent and accepted that the Commission had no jurisdiction to determine the within complaints. |
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.
Section 39 of the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 – 2012 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under that Act.
I find that for the reasons outlined above, I have no jurisdiction to investigate CA-00017754-001, CA-00017754-002 and CA-00017754-003. |
Dated: 26th July 2018
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Stephen Bonnlander
Key Words:
Company dissolved – no jurisdiction |