ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00028473

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Anonymised Parties	A Complainant	A Creche

Representatives

none

Complaints:

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-00036547-001	06/06/2020
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991	CA-00036548-001	06/06/2020

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 26/01/2021

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Conor Stokes

Procedure:

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

Background:

At the outset the complainant confirmed that Complaint CA-00036548-001 was a duplicate complaint and withdrew this complaint.

The complainant was employed as a Childcare Practitioner from 30 August 2019 until 9 January 2020 when she was let go. It was agreed by the parties that her rate of pay was €11.50 per hour and that she undertook an average of 23 hours per week.

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The complainant submitted that she was let go on 9 January 2020 and that she was paid all the monies due to her except for severance pay which she submitted amounted to €264.50 (one week’s pay).

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

The respondent submitted that the complainant was let go on 9 January 2020 but did not complete her shift on 10 January as asked of her. The respondent confirmed that it did not pay severance pay to the complainant.

Findings and Conclusions:

Section 1 of the payment of Wages Act, 1991 defines wages as follows:

“wages”, in relation to an employee, means any sums payable to the employee by the employer in connection with his employment, including—

(a) any fee, bonus or commission, or any holiday, sick or maternity pay, or any other emolument, referable to his employment, whether payable under his contract of employment or otherwise, and

(b) any sum payable to the employee upon the termination by the employer of his contract of employment without his having given to the employee the appropriate prior notice of the termination, being a sum paid in lieu of the giving of such notice:

Section 4(2) of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973 indicates, amongst other things, that:

(2) 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,

Accordingly, I find that the complaint is well founded and that the complainant is entitled to one weeks pay in lieu of notice.

Decision:

Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaints in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under Schedule 6 of that Act.

Arising from my findings above, my decision is to award the complainant €264.50 in lieu of minimum notice.

Dated: 29th January 2021

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Conor Stokes

Key Words:

Minimum notice, payment of wages