ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00021350

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Anonymised Parties	A Delivery Driver	A Delivery Company

Representatives

Complaint(s):

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-00028117-001	01/05/2019

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 03/09/2019

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Roger McGrath

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 following the referral of the complaint(s)/dispute(s) to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint(s)/dispute(s) and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint(s)/dispute(s).

Background:

The complainant commenced employment as a driver with the respondent on 30th October 2018. He was paid €599.00 per week. His employment ended on 5th February 2019. A complaint was lodged with the WRC on 1st May 2019.

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The complainant stated that when his employment ended with the respondent, he was not paid seven days pay due to him. When he later enquired about this matter, he was told he was not being paid his final week’s pay as he had not given notice of his resignation.

The complainant was paid €599 per week, i.e. €120.00 per day.

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

The respondent did not attend the hearing.

Findings and Conclusions:

Section 5(1) of the Act provides:

“(1) An employer shall not make a deduction from the wages of an employee (or receive any payment from an employee) unless— (a) the deduction (or payment) is required or authorised to be made by virtue of any statute or any instrument made under statute,

(b) the deduction (or payment) is required or authorised to be made by virtue of a term of the employee’s contract of employment included in the contract before, and in force at the time of, the deduction or payment, or

(c) in the case of a deduction, the employee has given his prior consent in writing to it.”

Section 5(6) of the Act provides: —

(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 any 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 of 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.

The issue for decision in relation to the complainant’s complaint is whether or not the respondent made an unlawful deduction from his wages, contrary to Section 5 of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 in relation to the unpaid wages which he claims were due to him on the termination of his employment on 5th February 2019. In considering this issue, I must first decide whether the claimed unlawful deduction was in fact “properly payable” to the complainant within the meaning of Section 5(6) of the Act.

Based on the uncontested evidence of the complainant, I find that the sum of €840.00 was “properly payable” to the complainant in respect of unpaid wages, within the meaning of Section 5(6) of the Act on the termination of his employment.

Having regard to the foregoing, I find that the respondent made an unlawful deduction from the complainant’s wages contrary to Section 5 of the Act in respect of unpaid wages which were payable to him on the termination of his employment. Accordingly, I find that the complaint is well founded.

Decision:

Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint(s)/dispute(s) in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under Schedule 6 of that Act.

I find that the respondent made an unlawful deduction from the complainant’s wages contrary to Section 5 of the Payment of Wages Act 1991, and accordingly, that the claim is well founded. I hereby direct that the respondent pay the complainant the sum of €840.00 subject to any lawful deductions, in respect of unpaid wages.

Dated: 16th October 2019

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Roger McGrath

Key Words:

“Uncontested evidence”, “termination of employment”