ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00023002

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Anonymised Parties	A nurse	A nursing home

Complaint(s):

Act	Complaint/Dispute Reference No.	Date of Receipt
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 7 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994	CA-00029646-001	12/07/2019

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 18/09/2019

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Shay Henry

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 and under section 7 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994following 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 was not given a copy of her terms and conditions of employment

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The complainant worked for the respondent for a period of 20 months and despite repeated requests was never given a copy of her terms and conditions of employment. The absence of these made it difficult for her when her hours were reduced.

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

The respondent acknowledges that the terms and conditions were not given. The reason for this was that the complainant requested a reduction in hours on a number of occasions.

Findings and Conclusions:

The Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 requires an employer to;

give or cause to be given to the employee a statement in writing containing the following particulars of the terms of the employee's employment, that is to say—

(a) the full names of the employer and the employee,

(b) the address of the employer in the State or, where appropriate, the address of the principal place of the relevant business of the employer in the State or the registered office (within the meaning of the Companies Act, 1963 ),

(c) the place of work or, where there is no fixed or main place of work, a statement specifying that the employee is required or permitted to work at various places,

(d) the title of the job or nature of the work for which the employee is employed,

(e) the date of commencement of the employee's contract of employment,

(f) in the case of a temporary contract of employment, the expected duration thereof or, if the contract of employment is for a fixed term, the date on which the contract expires,

(g) the rate or method of calculation of the employee's remuneration,

(h) the length of the intervals between the times at which remuneration is paid, whether a week, a month or any other interval,

(i) any terms or conditions relating to hours of work (including overtime),

(j) any terms or conditions relating to paid leave (other than paid sick leave),

(k) any terms or conditions relating to—

(i) incapacity for work due to sickness or injury and paid sick leave, and

(ii) pensions and pension schemes,

(l) the period of notice which the employee is required to give and entitled to receive (whether by or under statute or under the terms of the employee's contract of employment) to determine the employee's contract of employment or, where this cannot be indicated when the information is given, the method for determining such periods of notice,

(m) a reference to any collective agreements which directly affect the terms and conditions of the employee's employment including, where the employer is not a party to such agreements, particulars of the bodies or institutions by whom they were made.

Section of 5 of the Act also requires any changes in the terms of employment to be notified to the employee in writing

5.—(1) Subject to subsection (2), whenever a change is made or occurs in any of the particulars of the statement furnished by an employer under section 3 , 4 or 6 , the employer shall notify the employee in writing of the nature and date of the change as soon as may be thereafter, but not later than—

(a) 1 month after the change takes effect, ….

The respondent acknowledges that neither requirement was met and accordingly 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.

Section 7 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under that Act.

The complaint under Section 7 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994 is well founded and I order the respondent to pay the complainant €400 in compensation.

The above award is in redress of the Complainant’s statutory rights and therefore not subject to income tax as per s. 192 A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 as amended by s.7 of the Finance Act 2004

Dated: 23-09-2019

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Shay Henry