Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

Copywriter

Website Designer

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-00025028-001

15/01/2019

The complainant commenced working for the respondent as a copywriter in September 2015. Terms were agreed but there were issues regarding the irregular nature of payments to the complainant. The complainant eventually decided to resign because of this ongoing issue and the complaint is in respect of wages due to him at the time of his resignation in July 2018.

The complainant agreed salary terms with the respondent in 2015 at the commencement of his employment.

From early on there were problems regarding the sporadic nature of the salary payments.

In July 2018 the complainant decided to resign and the respondent confirmed in writing that the complainant was owed the sum of €15,000.00 in arrears of wages to be paid over a specified period.

The complainant has not received any of this outstanding amount.

The respondent acknowledges that the complainant is owed the sum specified as outstanding wages.

The respondent is experiencing business difficulties at present.

The respondent is not in a position to make the payments promised to the complainant.

The facts behind this complaint are not contested. The respondent is involved in designing websites for businesses. In 2015 the complainant agreed to work for the respondent. The complainant initially worked free for a number of weeks and then began submitting invoices for his work. In September the relationship was formalised and the complainant was offered and accepted a permanent position as a Senior Content Writer on an agreed salary. Initially everything was fine but issues began to arise when wage payments became overdue. The payments that were received were on a sporadic basis. There was a business re-organisation in 2017 and the respondent promised that matters would improve in the future and offered the complainant a pay rise. The irregular nature of the timing of payments and amounts received continued however.  The complainant submitted a list of payments received which showed the dates and payments received in wages in 2017 / 2018 and which demonstrated the fluctuations in amounts and irregularity as regards receipt of same.   The last payment received was on 14 June 2018. Eventually in July 2018 the complainant decided that he could not continue working for the respondent under those conditions. The complainant consequently resigned and procured new employment. At the time of his resignation in July 2018 the respondent confirmed in writing that the complainant was owed the sum of €15,000.00 in wages for work done and stated that this would be paid in monthly instalments to be completed by the end of December 2018. The complainant did not in fact receive any payments in this regard.

The respondent, as stated, accepted these facts and stated that he was sorry that the situation was as it was. The respondent further stated that any profits generated by the business were being used to pay the Revenue Commissioners. The respondent therefore claimed that he was not in a position to pay the complainant the money due to him. The respondent accepted fully his liability to the complainant.

The complainant produced the letter written by the respondent at the time of the complainant’s departure from the business. Although dated 27 July 1969 it was accepted by the respondent that it was in fact written by him on 27 July 2018. The letter states the following:

“I am writing to confirm that I owe you €15,000 in wages for work completed during your time with (trading names of respondent).

I will pay this off at a rate of no less than €2,000 per month with a view to having the debt settled by the end of December 2018.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your hard work over the years. You have been a pleasure to work with and I wish you every success in your new career.”

It is clear from this and from the evidence given at the hearing that it is accepted that on 27 July 2018 the complainant was owed €15,000.00 in wages and that payment of this has not been received by him.

Section 5(6) of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991, states:

Where –

(a)    the total amount of any wages that are paid on any occasion by an employer to an employee is less than the total amount of wages that is properly payable by him to the employee on that occasion (after making any deductions therefrom that fall to be made and are in accordance with this Act), or

(b)    none of the wages that are properly payable to an employee by an employer on any occasion (after making such deductions as aforesaid) are paid to the employee,

then, except in so far as the deficiency or non-payment is attributable to an error in computation, the amount of the deficiency or non-payment shall be treated as a deduction made by the employer from the wages of the employee on the occasion.

It is accepted that the complainant was due €15,000.00 gross pay at the time that he terminated his employment at the end of July 2018. It is further accepted that the complainant did not receive any payment at that time (or since). I find, therefore, that this deficiency is not attributable to an error in computation and is accordingly to be treated as a deduction made by the respondent from the wages of the complainant.

Complaint No. CA-00025028-001:

I find this complaint under the Payment of Wages Act, 1991, to be well founded and I require the respondent to pay to the complainant the sum of €15.000.00, less any deductions therefrom that fall to be made and are in accordance with the Act.