Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

Bar Manager

Public House

Representatives

none 

none 

Act

Complaint Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991

CA-00034338-001

04/02/2020

The Complainant was employed as a Bar Manager by the Respondent from 2nd December 2019 until 14th January 2020 at an hourly rate of €16 gross.  The Complainant has submitted a complainant in relation to unpaid wages under the Payment of Wages Act, 1991.

The Complainant was employed as a Bar Manager by the Respondent from 2nd December 2019 until 14th January 2020.  The Respondent agreed to pay him a minimum of €640 a week for 40 hours worked (€16 gross an hour) and €16 an hour for each additional hour worked.  The Complainant resigned on 14th January 2020.

The Complainant submits that he is owed €1,488.00 for 93 hours of work @ €16 per hour as follows:  

·       61 hours worked during the week of 6th – 11th January 2020 for which he did not receive any payment.

·       14 hours worked during the week of 12th – 14th January 2020 for which he did not receive any payment; and,

·       18 hours for the week of 23rd – 29th December 2019.  The Complainant contends that he worked 61 hours on that week but only received payment for 43 hours and, therefore, that he is owed payment for the remaining 18 hours.

The Respondent did not attend the hearing to respond to the Complainant’s complaint. 

Section 5(1) of the Payment of Wages Act prohibits an employer from making a deduction from the wages of an employee unless certain conditions are fulfilled.  Section 5(6) provides that the non-payment of wages which are properly payable to an employee by an employer shall be treated as a deduction unless it was due to a computational error.  I have included the relevant sections of the Act below.

Section 5 (1) of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 provides that –

“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 that 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 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 employerfrom the wages of the employee on the occasion.”

Based on the uncontested evidence of the Complainant, I find that this complaint is well founded.

In accordance with Section 41(5) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, I find that this complaint is well founded. I direct the Respondent to pay the Complainant €1,488, subject to any lawful deductions.

Non-payment of wages; no show by Respondent