ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00017425

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Anonymised Parties	A Waitress	A Restaurant

Representatives

Alan Ledwith BL instructed by Eric Gleeson

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-00022551-001	10/10/2018

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 05/04/2019

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 claimed that that she did not receive payment in relation to her minimum notice entitlements.

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The complainant worked as a waitress and commenced employment on 20/1/2000 and her employment ended on 16/6/2018 when the respondent ceased to operate.

The complainant claimed that she was owed monies in relation to her minimum notice entitlement.

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

The respondent is registered as a voluntary non-profit making organisation and ceased trading as there was nobody to take it over when the voluntary Treasurer had to step down. It was accepted that the complainant had not received her minimum notice. The respondent queried whether the claim taken should be taken under the Payment of Wages legislation but accepted that they were not prejudiced by the claim as full details had been submitted on the complaint form.

Findings and Conclusions:

Notwithstanding that the complaint form is not a statutory form and that the respondent accepted that he was on notice of the complaint, the Payment of Wages Act provides for complaints of illegal deduction from wages and wages in this context includes any sum payable to the employee upon termination of the employer of his contract of employment.

The Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act details entitlements for employees as follows

4.— (1) An employer shall, in order to terminate the contract of employment of an employee who has been in his continuous service for a period of thirteen weeks or more, give to that employee a minimum period of notice calculated in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) of this section.

(2) The minimum notice to be given by an employer to terminate the contract of employment of his employee shall be—

( e) if the employee has been in the continuous service of his employer for fifteen years or more, eight weeks.

The complainant’s gross weekly pay was €301.95 and she was entitled to eight weeks minimum notice which she did not receive. I uphold the complaint and award the complainant €2,415.60.

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 uphold the complaint and award the complainant €2,415.60.

Dated: 30^th May 2019

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Louise Boyle

Key Words:

Payment of wages