ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00022495
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Anonymised Parties | Airport Shift Worker | Service Company |
Representatives | Complainant | Industrial Relations Manager |
Complaint(s):
Act | Complaint/Dispute Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 | CA-00029231-001 | 21/06/2019 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 10/10/2019
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Brian Dalton
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 and Section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 as amended following the referral of the complaint(s)/dispute(s) to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint(s)/dispute(s) and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint(s)/dispute(s).
Background:
The issue in contention concerns the alleged non-payment of two public holidays: Christmas day and St. Stephen’s day 2018. |
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
The complainant was certified sick from the 21st to the 28th December 2018 and when he received his payslip on the 16th January his pay was down by €500 and he attributed this to non-payment of his public holiday entitlement during the period of absence. He wrote to the company who explained that he had been paid; however, this explanation was not accepted. The claimant rejected the explanation as no one on his shift roster worked on Christmas day and yet he was deducted for that day. |
Summary of Respondent’s Case:
The company accepts that the roster system is not very well communicated particularly relating to deductions. A flat payment is made to employees on the shift roster that incorporates payment for public holidays. These payments are made each week. While the statutory entitlement is for 9 public holidays; the company actually pays for 10 days as it treats Christmas Eve as a public holiday based on a collective agreement. The Airport is open for 365 days a year and the complainant was actually rostered to work on Christmas Day. Depending on the requirement, that shift may or may not be availed of by the company. The complainant was certified sick on the two public holidays and also on Christmas Eve. The sick pay scheme which is a collective agreement does not provide for sick pay benefit when an employee is out sick on a public holiday. The deductions made relate to the three days: Christmas Eve; Christmas day and St. Stephens day as sick benefit is not paid on those days as per the rules of the sick pay scheme. However, the claimant did receive his statutory paid entitlement as per Section 21 (1) of the Organisation Working Time Act which was an additional day’s pay. This matter had been raised by the SIPTU Union as well and they were satisfied that all public holiday entitlements had been paid and communicated this to their members. |
Findings and Conclusions:
I am satisfied that the complainant did receive payment for Christmas Day and St. Stephens day in 2018. The payment is built into the regular payment of entitlements over the year. This can cause confusion as the payment is each week and amounts to 1.52 hours per week which equates to the 9 Public Holidays and an additional day, Christmas Eve, that is classed as a holiday by the company. I requested during the hearing, for the payroll department to confirm that the deductions related to a deduction made under the rules of the Sick Pay Scheme. Sick pay benefits are not made where a shift that is rostered on a Public Holiday is not worked. That rule applies to the shifts where the complainant was scheduled to work on Christmas day and also St. Stephen’s day and also to Christmas Eve. The payroll department confirmed that was the case and that no deduction had been made relating to the payment for Public Holiday entitlement, rather deductions were made because the complainant hadn’t work on rostered shifts that fell on Christmas day and St. Stephen’s day. Having heard the evidence and examined how the shift roster works; how pay is averaged over each quarter; the correspondence from SIPTU that they were satisfied that Public Holiday payments had been made in accordance with the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 as amended and confirmation from the company’s payroll department that no deduction of Public Holiday entitlement was made and it was in fact paid to the complainant, I find that the complaint is not well founded. |
Decision:
Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint(s)/dispute(s) in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under Schedule 6 of that Act.
In accordance with Section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 the complaint is not well founded.
Dated: 5th December 2019
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Brian Dalton
Key Words:
Public Holidays-Shift Roster-Averaging of Payments-Sick Pay Plan-Public Holidays and Sick Pay |