Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

An Employee

A Bank

Representatives

Self 

Aoife McDonnell IBEC

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-00037698-001

18/06/2020

The complainant was recruited by the respondent in 2017 and during the period encompassed by this complaint was in receipt of a salary of €66,500.

The complainant submitted that when he undertook a new role for the respondent in or around Spring 2020, he was not given a written account of his new terms and conditions even though his role had changed.

The complainant submitted that he was moved from an economics research and theory role to a data analyst query type role and that this change was not accompanied by notification of a change in his terms and conditions of employment.

The complainant submitted that the roles do not line up and that the job specifications are drastically different, with different titles and duties for different teams and that this amounted to a fundamental change in his employment.

The respondent submitted that the roles were not fundamentally different and that these roles reflected day-to-day organisational change. The respondent acknowledged that there was a change in reporting lines and noted that the complainant’s contract of employment specifically included a flexibility clause as to the duties are responsible for carrying out.

The respondent noted that there was a slightly different structure brought in but suggested that this did not amount to a change in the contract of employment.

The complainant submitted that the respondent had made significant changes to his role and that these were not notified for him in writing as required by the legislation. He gave an account of a change in duties and responsibilities, a change in reporting structures and a change to his job title.

Section 5 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Acts, 1994 states that

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, or

(b) where the change is consequent on the employee being required to work outside the State for a period of more than 1 month, the time of the employee’s departure.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply in relation to a change occurring in provisions of statutes or instruments made under statute , other than a registered employment agreement or employment regulation order, or of any other laws or of any administrative provisions or collective agreements referred to in the statement given under section 3 or 4 .

Section 3(1) of the Acts state, amongst other things, that:

(1) An employer shall, not later than 2 months after the commencement of an employee’s employment with the employer, 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—

…

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

The respondent submitted that the complainant’s role had evolved and that his contract of employment contained a clause under the Duties section which stated that “You will be required to be flexible in this position and must be prepared to undertake such other duties as may be assigned to you by the Company from time to time”.

Following receipt of an internal complaint along the lines of the instant complaint, the respondent concluded that ‘the job title had not changed since the Complainant commenced in 2018” and it was “noted that the role had evolved, but this was normal ongoing change.” “… senior management had asked the Complainant to perform new tasks in addition to those historically completed. The role had been the same since 10 September 2018. However, it was considered these tasks were within the scope of the Complainants role of Model/Analyst/Valid Senior Manager, and these tasks would not be unusual to this role. These tasks have been deemed to sit best within that team to best support the company clients. Further to this, these additional tasks were also beneficial to the Complainants continued professional development, as in the fast paced, continuously evolving role it is important to develop additional on the job experience within the risk function.”

The complainant gave evidence that he had been assigned new duties but also gave evidence that he had been prohibited from retaining his former duties or indeed from assisting his former colleagues with duties he had previously undertaken. This evidence was not contradicted by the respondent.   Therefore, I find that the role assigned to the complainant was not the same role or the same role augmented with additional tasks as suggested by the respondent.

I note from the complainants Contract of Employment that his Position/Manager is noted as:

Your Position will be Model/Scorng/Analys-Manager / Vice President / C13.

Your Department will be Risk Analytics and Modeling.

Your Manager Ms, K.

The Company reserves the right to vary the position of reporting lines as reasonably necessary to reflect changes in the organisation or other requirements from time to time.

Although I note the reference to varying reporting lines, I note that the respondent does not make any similar provision for the title. I am not satisfied that the respondent has demonstrated that the job title as outlined in the Contract of Employment remains the same, although I note that the grade remains unchanged.

Having regard to the written and oral submissions of both parties, I find that as both the nature of the work and the title of the job as laid out in the Contract of Employment have changed, the complaint was well founded, and the complainant is entitled to succeed.

Arising from my findings above, my decision is to award the complainant compensation of €2,000 which I consider just and equitable having regard to all the circumstances.

Terms of Employment, Job Title, Nature of the work