ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00018147

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Anonymised Parties	Cleaner	Nursing Home

Representatives

AndreaCleereSIPTU

Maria Killian

Complaint:

Act	Complaint/Dispute Reference No.	Date of Receipt
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 45A of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946	CA-00023363-001	20/11/2018

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 14/05/2019

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Gaye Cunningham

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 and Section 45A of the Industrial Relations Act 1946,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.

Background:

The Complainant seeks to be paid the minimum rate of pay as set out in the Employment Regulation Order for Cleaners.

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The Complainant works as a fulltime Cleaner in one of the Respondent’s Nursing Homes. As her hourly rate of pay is less than the hourly rate set out by the Joint Labour Committee regarding pay for Cleaners, she seeks the legal level of payment as set out in statute.

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

The Respondent contends that as a nursing home it is not covered by the Employment Regulation Order which sets out rates of pay for the contract cleaning sector. To provide the increase sought would have a knock-on effect to other employees resulting in a cost in the order of €600,000 to the annual payroll.

Findings and Conclusions:

Section 45A of the Industrial Relations Act 1946 provides for a decision under Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 in relation to a complaint of a contravention of an employment regulation order. The employment regulation order (ERO) in this instant case is by way of a statutory instrument, S.I. 548 of 2016 governing remuneration and conditions of employment in relation to the contract cleaning sector. The ERO provides that the definition of “workers” to whom it applies is covered by the Establishment Order. The Establishment Order means S.I. No. 626/2007 which defines the relevant workers as

“1. Workers employed in contract cleaning…

2. In this schedule, “contract cleaning” means the cleaning of premises by companies engaged in whole or in part on the provision of cleaning and janitorial services”.

As the complaint is not a valid complaint as it refers to a body of workers to which the Complainant does not belong, I must declare the complaint to be not well founded.

Decision:

In accordance with Section 45A of the Industrial Relations Act 1946, for the reasons cited above, I declare that the complaint is not well founded.

Dated: 8^th August 2019

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Gaye Cunningham