Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

Construction worker

Construction company

Representatives

  Self- represented

 Did not attend

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-00036067-001

08/05/2020

The complainant commenced employment with the respondent as a construction worker on 7 February 2020.

The complainant states that the respondent failed to pay him his net weekly wage of €650 due on the 3 April 2020l. This was an unlawful deduction of €650.

His weekly gross salary is €964.77; his net pay is € 650.00. He works 50 hours a week.

He submitted his complaint to the WRC on 8 May 2020.

The complainant submits that the respondent made an unlawful deduction from his wages on the 3 April 2020. He had worked his normal 50-hour week from the 27 March up until the 3 April. He is paid weekly. He was not paid his wages for that period.

The employer gave no advance notification that he planned to withhold his weekly salary.

The  complainant cannot remember if he received a written contract of employment.

The complainant telephoned the respondent in late April. The respondent told him that he would pay him with cash at some point when he received monies owed to him. The complainant wanted a payslip and deductions in compliance with regulations. He has received no wages since that telephone call.

The respondent though notified of the time and date of the hearing did not attend.

He did not answer his telephone when contacted by the WRC on the date of the hearing.

The question for determination is whether the respondent’s failure to pay the complainant the sum of €650 on 3 April 2020 contravened section 5(1) of the Act of 1991

Relevant Law.

The Act at Section 5 provides as follows:

“5. (1) 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”.

There was no evidence to demonstrate the availability of these statutory protections which would permit the employer to deduct this complainant’s wages. The complainant was not informed of the intended deduction.

Section   5 (6) of the Act of 1991 goes on to identify a deduction as follows:

“(b)None of the wages that are properly payable to an employee by an employer on any occasion ( after making 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 employer”

The uncontested evidence of the complainant is that he worked the week commencing Monday 30 March and ending on the 3 /4/2020. The uncontested evidence is that his employer did not pay him for that week and that the gross weekly wage of €964.77, net €650 was” properly payable”. I find that the failure to pay him a week’s wages is a breach of Section 5(6)(b) of the Payment of Wages Act,1991 and is an illegal deduction.

In accordance with section 6(2) of the Act of 1991, I order the respondent to pay the complainant the sum of €650 which is the net amount of the wages unlawfully deducted from him on the 3 April 2020.

I find the complaint to be well founded.

I find that the failure to pay the complainant a week’s wages is a breach of Section 5(6)(b) of the Payment of Wages Act and is an illegal deduction.

I order the respondent to pay the complainant his net wages of €650 due and properly payable to him.

Payment of Wages; illegal deduction.