ADJ-00012721

Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

A Chef

A Hotel

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-00016798-001

13/01/2018

The complainant worked at the hotel as a Chef from 20th August 2017 until his employment ended on 8th January 2018. His weekly rate was €769.00 with an hourly rate of approx €19.22. He claims that he is owed for annual leave, public holidays, overtime and other pay.

The complainant submitted that he was engaged as a Chef, earning €769 weekly for working 40 hours. It had been agreed that he would work 50 hours per week for those wages and that the 10 hours extra would be given to him as time in lieu during the quieter months. He advised that he received payment in cash and often did not receive a pay slip and often he had to go and ask the respondent for pay as she would forget to pay him.

He claims that the hotel were going through difficulties to bring the Hotel up to the required health and safety standards and that when this was achieved with his help, he was brought in and told that they could no longer afford him and that his employment was terminated with a weeks notice.

He contacted the respondent following his dismissal to secure the minimum notice, outstanding annual leave, outstanding public holidays and payment owed in relation to working other hours. An exchange of emails was provided which detailed that the Director MS A disputed some of the payments but accepted and agreed to pay some others.   Payments already received from the respondent appeared to be in relation to his 1 weeks minimum notice (€769.00), one weeks owed from August 2017 (€769.00) and 4 days pay with regard to annual leave and public holidays (4 x €153.76). Thus a payment of €2,153.20 gross was paid on 14th January 2017 to the complainant,

It was claimed that 200 hours were still owing for working in excess of the 40 hour working week (10 hours every week) which at a the hourly rate of €19.22 totalled €3,844 gross.   It was also claimed that the complainant was owed €769.00 gross for working the week of 1st January – 7th January 2018. It was finally claimed that the complainant was owed €1,306.96 for outstanding annual leave and public holidays (8.5 days).

An email was submitted from the former Operations Manager of the Hotel who had hired the complainant, confirming that it had been agreed that the complainant would work 50 hours a week during the busy season and any extra hours worked would be given back in the quiet time of the Hotel.

The Respondent did not engage with the Workplace Relations Commission in relation to the complaint. The Respondent did not attend the Hearing. I confirmed that a letter had issued notifying the Respondent of the date, time and location of the hearing, and in the circumstances, I find that their non-attendance without any acceptable explanation to be unreasonable in the circumstances.

It was regrettable that the respondent did not attend the hearing to put forward a defence to the above and therefore, the only evidence I have is that of the complainant.

Section 5 (6) provides:

“Where –

1.       The total amount of wages that are paid on any occasion by an employer to an employee is less than the total amount of wages that is properly payable by him to the employee on that occasion (after making any deductions therefrom that fall to be made and are in accordance with this Act), or

2.       None of the wages that are properly payable to an employee by an employer on any occasion (after making any such deductions as aforesaid) are paid to the employee, then, except in so far as the deficiency or non-payment is attributable to an error of computation, the amount of the deficiency or non-payment shall be treated as a deduction made by the employer from the wages of the employee on the occasion”.

I have examined the pay slips of the complainant and the payments received from the respondent.

Based on the evidence , I find and declare that the complaint under Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 is well founded and it is upheld and the complainant is entitled to be paid €5,919.96 gross based on €3,844 gross for working 200 hours additional hours during his employment, €769.00 gross for working the week of 1st January – 7th January 2018 and €1,306.96 for the 8.5 outstanding annual leave and public holidays days.

I find and declare that the complaint under Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 is well founded and it is upheld and the complainant is entitled to be paid €5,919.96 gross.

Payment of wages,