Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

Retail Sales

Retail

Representatives

Self 

Did not attend 

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 11 of the Minimum Notice & Terms of Employment Act, 1973

CA-00033718-001

10/01/2020

The complainant commenced employment with the respondent on the 13th April 2019 and without notice his contract was ended on 3rd November 2019. The employer failed to attend the hearing; however, in a written submission they stated that the complainant was on a fixed term contract that ended on the 3rd of November 2019 and therefore he had received notice and was not entitled to payment in lieu of notice.

The complainant started working with the Company on 13th of July 2019 and after passing his probationary period was offered a contract extension on the 15th August 2019. He believed from conversations with his manager that his employment was ongoing. He booked a holiday from the 2nd to the 5th of November 2019 and on his return was told that his employment had ceased on the 3rd November 2019. He claims that he is owed one week’s notice which equals 20 hours x €10.05= €201.

I am satisfied that the respondent was notified in writing of the hearing date, time and venue. The respondent failed to show.

Section 4(1) of the Act states that :

“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.

And at 4(2) it states:

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

(a)    If the employee has been in the continuous service of his employer for less than two years, one week,

And at Section 12(1) the Act states:

“A decision of an adjudication officer under section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 in relation to a complaint of a contravention of section 4(2) or 5 may, where the adjudication officer finds that the section was contravened by the employer in relation to the employee who presented the complaint, include a direction that the employer concerned pay to the employee compensation for any loss sustained by the employee by reason of the contravention.

In its written submission the company stated the fixed contract terminated on the 3rd November 2019; however, the complainant gave evidence at the hearing that he was told his employment had been made ongoing. As the respondent failed to attend; the evidence given by the complainant is preferred to what appears on the face of the fixed term contract that the employment ended on the 3rd of November 2019. The complainant has 13 weeks continuous service.

I find that the complaint is well- founded, and that the employer has breached Section 4(2) of the Act and direct that the employer pay compensation to the employee of one week’s notice which amounts to €201.

I find that the complaint is well founded and that the employer has breached Section 4(2) of the Act and direct that the employer pay compensation to the employee of one week’s notice which amounts to €201. I am satisfied that the respondent was notified in writing of the date, time and venue of the hearing and failed to attend.

Minimum notice