Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

Office Administrator

Training Provision Company

Representatives

  Self

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 39 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967

CA-00026723-001

01/03/2019

The complainant was employed as an office administrator by the respondent since February 2014.  The complainant was made redundant with effect from 1 October 2018 and her complaint is in relation to the fact that no payment has been received by her in this regard.

The complainant was employed since 10 February 2014 as a full-time office administrator.

The complainant was advised that she was being made redundant with effect from 1 October 2018.

The complainant’s gross weekly pay was €1,307.69 per fortnight.

The complainant did not receive any redundancy payment on that date.

The complainant still has not received any payment despite contacting the respondent on several occasions.

There was no appearance by the respondent at the hearing.

The complainant stated that she was made redundant from her position as an office / payroll administrator with the respondent on 1 October 2018.  A letter received from the respondent dated 1 October 2018 confirmed that her employment would terminate on that date due to her position becoming redundant.  The reason given was adverse trading conditions.  The letter went on to state that “we will of course make the required statutory redundancy payment due to you at the date of cessation of employment along with all outstanding wages and annual leave entitlement due at that date.”

 The complainant in evidence said that she was not paid her redundancy payment at that time.  The complainant had contacted the respondent’s owner/director in this regard on several occasions and in April 2019 had suggested that she was willing to accept a phased payment of the amount due to her.  In reply by email the director acknowledged the payment due to the complainant pleading financial constraints as the reason for non-payment.  He put forward a counter proposal as to how the money would be paid.  In relation to the WRC hearing the director stated that “I’m not sure if there’s any point in attending as I’ll be paying you anyway.”  As noted there was no attendance at the hearing by any representative of the respondent.  The commencement of the hearing had been deferred for a period in case the respondent had been delayed.   As of the date of the hearing no money had been received by the complainant from the respondent.

It should be noted that the director did make an appearance later in the day.  He accepted the position put forward by the complainant as being correct.

I find that the complainant was made redundant on 1 October 2018, that she did not receive the statutory payment due to her as a result of that redundancy and that therefore her complaint is well founded.

Complaint No. CA-00026723-001:

Based on the evidence before me I find this complaint under the Redundancy Payments Acts, 1967 – 2012, to be well founded.  The complainant is therefore entitled to a redundancy payment based on the following criteria:

Date of Commencement:     10 February 2014

Date of Termination:             1 October 2018

Gross Weekly Pay:                 €600.00

(Wage ceiling prevailing at the time: €600.00)

This award is made subject to the complainant having been in insurable employment under the Social Welfare Acts during the relevant period.