ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00018824

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Anonymised Parties	Employee	Employer

Complaint:

Act	Complaint Reference No.	Date of Receipt
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991	CA-00023384-001	20/11/2018

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 25/02/2019

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Marie Flynn

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 following the referral of the complaint to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint.

Preliminary Issue: Jurisdiction

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The Complainant has submitted a complaint under the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 in respect of alleged unpaid expenses.

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

The Respondent submits that expenses are not wages properly payable under the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 and, therefore, the WRC does not have jurisdiction to hear the complaint.

Findings and Conclusions:

Section 1 of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 provides the following definition of wages:

““ wages”, in relation to an employee, means any sums payable to the employee by the employer in connection with his employment, including—

( a) any fee, bonus or commission, or any holiday, sick or maternity pay, or any other emolument, referable to his employment, whether payable under his contract of employment or otherwise, and

( b) any sum payable to the employee upon the termination by the employer of his contract of employment without his having given to the employee the appropriate prior notice of the termination, being a sum paid in lieu of the giving of such notice:

Provided however that the following payments shall not be regarded as wages for the purposes of this definition:

(i) any payment in respect of expenses incurred by the employee in carrying out his employment,”

I find that the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 does not cover the payment of expenses.

Accordingly, I find that I do not have the jurisdiction to hear this complaint.

Decision:

Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under Schedule 6 of that Act.

I find that this complaint is not well founded

Dated: 30th April 2019

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Marie Flynn

Key Words:

Payment of wages – unpaid expenses – no jurisdiction – not well founded