Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

An employee

An employer

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-00014688-003

29/09/2017

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 7 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994

CA-00014688-004

29/09/2017

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997

CA-00014688-006

29/09/2017

The Complainant commenced employment with the Respondent on 19/07/2017 and was dismissed on 16/08/2017. The contract of employment issued to the Complainant states that it was a casual contract and that the Respondent would notify the Complainant of her working hours roster one week / 3 days in advance of the commencement of that rostered duty …….

The Complainant has made three complaints to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC):

1.       CA 00014688 – 003 – complaint under Payment of Wages Act,1991.

2.       CA 00014688 – 004 – complaint under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994.

3.       CA 00014688 – 006 – complaint under the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997.

On commencement of employment the Complainant’s hourly rate of pay was €11.00 per hour.

CA -00014688 – 003 – Payment of Wages Act,1991.

The Complainant alleges that she was issued with work rosters showing eight hour shifts and these would be changed at the last minute, often to shifts that were shorter than eight hours with changes to start and finish times. The Complainant claims that she should have been paid in line with the original rosters and due to the late changes made she has calculated a shortfall of €800.

CA -00014688 – 004 – Terms of Employment (Information) Act,1994.

The Complainant was hired as a receptionist and this is clearly stated in the contract issued to her on 12th July 2017. From the first day of employment the Complainant was asked to perform a wide variety of duties that included moving chairs, clearing tables, dish washing and lifting crates of beer from a car into the location. At one point, she was asked to complete training on EPOS (electronic point of sale) in another company location. When the Complainant queried this, she alleges she was dismissed from employment.

The Complainant alleges that her terms of employment were changed, she was hired as a receptionist but her job changed very quickly to include bar work, store assistant, lifting furniture and other heavy work.

CA – 00014688 – 006 – Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997.

The Complainant has supplied no specific details on the complaint form and at hearing has claimed she was asked to work excessive night time hours, she was advised that hours of employment were from 9.00am to 5.30pm, instead she was asked to work until 9.00pm on occasion.

Generally, the Complainant feels that the Respondent has treated her unfairly and she did not resign from her position. She was asked to perform tasks, such as working in the gift shop, for which she had received no training.

The Respondent accepts that the Complainant was recruited as a receptionist and this is what she would have been doing when everything settled down. The place of work was not due to open to the public until 20th August 2017. In the build up to the opening things were at times chaotic and a number of pre-opening receptions/parties were arranged for invited guests. All staff members were expected to do whatever was necessary to prepare for these receptions and the opening.

Staff were hired weeks before the opening for training purposes, the Complainant was one of those staff. Hours of work were whatever was required and not exactly in line with whatever appeared on individual contracts of employment.

Whenever the Complainant queried what her job was she was provided with a full explanation.

On the evening of 19th July, the Complainant was asked to work in the gift shop. It is accepted that she may not have received full training on electronic point of sale equipment however there were employees who could show her on the job how to operate this equipment. The Complainant appeared to be an unwilling pupil for such training.

On Wednesday 9th August, the Complainant was given notice of the termination of her employment.

CA -00014688 – 003 – Payment of Wages Act,1991.

In her complaint form the Complainant has alleged that she is owed €800. From information obtained at the hearing this would appear to be a sum for contractual hours not worked and is not a deduction from wages that were paid to her. This being the case there is no breach of this legislation.

CA -00014688 – 004 – Terms of Employment (Information) Act,1994.

Section 3 of this legislation, at subsection (1) states:

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 ……….

From what is contained in the contract issued to the Complainant on 12th July 2017 the particulars are in line with the Act. The copy presented to me at the hearing had not been signed by the Respondent, I’m not aware if the original issued to the Complainant had been signed.

Section 5 of this legislation relates to notification of changes to the employment particulars and requires the Respondent to notify the employee in writing of the nature and date of the change as soon as may be thereafter, but not later than – (a) 1 month after the change takes effect……

As the Complainant was employed for less than one month there has been no breach of this section of the legislation.

CA – 00014688 – 006 – Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997.

The Complainant alleges, via her complaint form, that she had to work excessive night time hours.

Under the Organisation of Working Time Act,1997 “night time” means the period between midnight and 7.00am the following morning.

The contract of employment issued on 12th July 2017 states:

Hours of Work.

“The business operation is open between the hours of 9.00am to 6.30pm Monday to Sunday inclusive. This is a casual contract and the Company will notify you of your rostered duty one week/3 days in advance of the commencement of that rostered duty and in so far as is practicable, the rostering of hours will take into consideration the outside commitments of the employee”.

There is no reference to night time working in the contract and there was no evidence produced at the hearing to suggest night time working was part of the job.

I have considered the material facts in this complaint and considered the relevant legislation.

I consider the complaints not well found and for that reason must fail.