ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00019283
Complaint:
Act | Complaint/Dispute Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 | CA-00025167-001 | 21/01/2019 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 01/03/2019
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Catherine Byrne
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015, this complaint was assigned to me by the Director General. A hearing was arranged for March 1st 2019, for the parties to have an opportunity to be heard and to present evidence relevant to the complaint. The complainant attended alone and was not represented. The respondent did not attend, although I established that he was properly on notice of the date and time of the hearing. I proceeded with the hearing based on the uncontested evidence of the complainant.
Background:
The respondent is a contract cleaning company. The complainant starting work on June 17th 2018 and she worked for 12 hours per week on an hourly rate of €10.80. On January 8th 2019, she said that received a text message from her area manager with the message, “the company is gone.” Her complaint is that she was not paid her wages for the final three weeks of her employment and she was not paid her holiday pay and notice pay. |
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
At the hearing, the complainant explained the background to her complaint. She got paid fortnightly and although payslips were issued on time, sometimes, her wages would not be transferred to her bank account. She said that this happened every second or third time she was due to be paid. On January 4th 2019, the complainant said that she was due to be paid for the two previous weeks. She received a payslip which she produced in evidence showing that she was due to be paid for 11 hours’ work and 8.2 hours’ public holiday pay. She said that the first payslip that was issued didn’t show any pay for the public holidays that fell on Christmas Day and St Stephen’s Day and when she queried this, an amended payslip was issued. The total amount came to €207.36 gross. The complainant said that no money was transferred to her bank account. On Monday, January 7th, the complainant said that she went to work and sent a text message to the company’s managing director asking her about her wages. When she got no reply, she contacted her area manager and told her that, because of the delays with wages and, as she hadn’t been paid the previous Friday, she was handing in her notice. The area manager tole the complainant that she had to work two weeks’ notice, or she wouldn’t get her holiday pay. At the hearing, the complainant produced a contract of employment that she signed in September 2018 which showed that she was required to give two weeks’ notice of her intention to resign. The contract also provides that she is entitled to two weeks’ notice from her employer of any intention to terminate her employment. The next day, Tuesday, January 8th, the complainant said that she got a text message from her area manager letter her know that the company had closed down. She received a P45 on January 11th. The complainant’s case is that she is owed €207.36, in unpaid wages up December 30th 2018, as set out on the payslip sent to her on Friday, January 4th. She is also owed for six hours’ work on January 2nd and three hours on January 7th, a total of nine hours at €10.80 per hour. At the hearing, the complainant produced evidence of a holiday schedule from the company’s portal showing that she had 24 hours’ annual leave not taken when her employment was terminated. Finally, the complainant claims her entitlement to pay in lieu of two weeks’ notice. |
Summary of Respondent’s Case:
The respondent did not attend the hearing. |
Findings and Conclusions:
From the evidence submitted by the complainant, I am satisfied that her employment was terminated without notice and she was not paid her statutory entitlements to wages, holiday pay and pay in lieu of notice. I find that she is entitled to the following payments: Wages as set out on her payslip dated January 4th 2019: €207.36 Wages for nine hours’ work on January 2nd and 7th 2019: €97.20 24 hours’ holidays: €259.20 Two weeks’ notice @ 12 hours per week: €259.20 Total amount due: €822.96 |
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 have concluded that this complaint is well founded and I decide that the respondent is to pay the complainant a sum of €822.96 gross in respect of unpaid wages, holiday pay and notice pay. |
Dated: 06/03/2019
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Catherine Byrne
Key Words:
Non-payment of wages, holiday pay and pay in lieu of notice |