ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00014641

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Anonymised Parties	A Delivery Driver/Shop Assistant	A pizza takeaway

Representatives

Complaint:

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-00019073-002	10/05/2018

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 28/08/2018

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Louise Boyle

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015following 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 claims that the respondent owes him money for public holidays and annual leave.

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The complainant commenced employment on 15 February 2018. From the beginning the owner Mr A would fail to pay the complainant on time and the complainant regularly had to seek out the respondent to get paid. He also regularly failed to receive wage slips. He resigned his position on 1^st May 2018 and was told that there were no more hours for him on 7^th May when his employment ceased. His hourly rate was €9.42.

He was surprised that his P45 detailed his commencement of employment as 12 March 2018 and at the hearing the complainant provided details of his roster which showed employment on 15^th February 2018. Payment for hours worked was always made by cash. He made contact with the respondent after his resignation to seek the monies owed and the respondent’s accountant, Mr B, contacted him to say he would pay him €100 in full and final settlement. The complainant refused to accept this without seeking legal advice to which Mr B told him to “Fuck Off” and hung up the phone. Mr A contacted him later that evening and asked why he would not accept the €100.

A witness for the complainant Mr C gave evidence that he was present in the car when the call came in from the accountant, Mr B.

The complainant maintains he is owed monies for untaken annual leave and that he worked approximately 36 hours weekly from 15^th February – 7^th May 2018. The total hours worked were approximately 396 and he was paid approximately 15.5 hours annual leave but is owed money in relation to the remaining outstanding annual leave entitlement. He is also owed monies for working the St Patrick’s public holiday.

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

The Respondent did not engage with the Workplace Relations Commission in relation to the complaint. The Respondent did not attend the Hearing. I confirmed that a letter had issued notifying the Respondent of the date, time and location of the hearing, and in the circumstances, I find that their non-attendance without any acceptable explanation to be explained and unreasonable in the circumstances.

Findings and Conclusions:

Section 19 of the Act details that an employee should be entitled to annual leave equal to


		(a) 4 working weeks in a leave year in which he or she works at least 1,365 hours (unless it is a leave year in which he or she changes employment),
		(b) one-third of a working week for each month in the leave year in which he or she works at least 117 hours, or
		(c) 8 per cent. of the hours he or she works in a leave year (but subject to a maximum of 4 working weeks):

I am satisfied that the complainant commenced employment on 15^th February 2018 and because the Complainant worked approximately 396 hours at the rate of €9.42 he accrued a statutory entitlement of 31.68 hours, some of which he took. The outstanding number of hours that the complainant is owed for is 16.18 hours at the rate of €9.42.

With regard to his claim for public holiday, Section 21 details that an employee should be entitled to the benefit of the public holiday as follows:

“ (a) a paid day off on that day,

(b) a paid day off within a month of that day,

(d) an additional day’s pay:

I find that in respect of the Public Holiday that occurred on 17th March 2018, the complainant did work on that day and did not receive the Public Holiday Benefit of one-fifth of the normal weekly rate of pay. I find the Respondent did not act in accordance with the provisions of S.I. 475/1997 – Organisation of Working Time (Determination of pay for Holidays) Regulations, 1997 on this matter.

This claim is well founded.

Accordingly, the complainant’s claims for annual leave and public holiday are well founded and I order the Respondent to pay to the Complainant compensation to the sum of €152.41 for his annual leave entitlement and an additional €67.80 for the benefit owed for the public holiday. The respondent is ordered to pay therefore the total sum of €220.21.

Decision: 17^th May 2019

Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint

The claim is well founded and I order the Respondent to pay to the Complainant for annual leave and public holidays, the total total sum of €220.21.

Dated: