Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

A Health Care Assistant

A Health Provider

Representatives

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-00021600-001

03/09/2018

The complainant has been employed by the respondent since September 2000 and is paid €1,312.60 per fortnight.

The complainant did not receive her wages on June 27th 2018.

She sought payment on an emergency basis but this was not done.

She eventually received payment on September 20th, 2018.

The respondent accepts that due to an error the complainant had not been paid on the due date.

The background was complicated by the fact that payments were being made as part of its sick leave scheme following an assault on the complainant, and specifically as part the Serious Physical Assault Scheme.

There remain some other outstanding related issues which are to be the subject of imminent discussions between the parties, but which do not relate to the issue arising in this complaint.

The payment has now been made and the respondent says that no claim arises under the Act as there has been no breach of section 6.

Whether a failure to pay wages for a specific period represents a ‘deduction’ has been questioned by the respondent in its submission to the hearing.

The language in section 6 somewhat implies that a deduction arises where a payment has been made but has not been made in full.

The Act does not define a deduction but defines wages as follows

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

I do not accept this submission by the respondent. It would surely contradict the purpose of the legislation that an employer might, for example withhold say ten percent of a particular week’s wages and fall under the Act but were a full week’s wages to be withheld for any reason then that would not.   Such an interpretation would be perverse.

Taking the definition of wages above this must be interpreted in a broader context that ‘one week’s wages’ or one episode of payment and seen in the context of the employee’s generalised entitlement to be paid the wages for which they are contracted without any deduction.

So, I find that this was a deduction within the meaning of the Act.

However, the error leading to the delay in making the payment has now been rectified and no remedy I arises as outlined in section 6((2) (a).

Accordingly, the complaint is upheld but no award arises.

I uphold complaint CA-00021600 but make no award.

Payment of Wages