Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Marius  Cozac

JNI Structures Ltd

Representatives

  In person

 Did not attend hearing.

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-00041755-001

02/01/2021

The complainant was employed by the respondent from 1st August 2019 until 9th October 2020.

This complaint was received by the Workplace Relations Commission on 2nd January 2021. The hearing of the complaint was scheduled for a face to face hearing on 6th May 2022.

The complainant contends that he was employed by the respondent from 1st August 2019 until 9th October 2020 as a construction worker / van driver.

Whilst driving the company van the complainant was involved in a road traffic accident that caused damage to the company van and also damage to a third party vehicle. Cost of damages were approximately €1,500 to the company van and approximately €2,700 to the third party vehicle.

When the complainant was leaving employment a deduction of €1,300 was made to his final wages. The respondent informed the complainant that this was to cover some of the damages he caused to the vehicles involved in the road traffic accident.

The complainant was never issued with a contract of employment.

The respondent did not attend the scheduled hearing. I am satisfied that the respondent was issued with notification of the time, date and venue for the hearing. Such notification was sent on 15th March 2022.

In the absence of any evidence to the contrary I accept the evidence provided by the Complainant at the hearing on 6th May 2022.

The Payment of Wages Act, 1991 at section 5 reads 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 vitue 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.

(2) An employer shall not make a deduction from the wages of an employee in respect of –

(a) any act or omission of the employee, or

(b) any goods or services supplied to or provided for the employee by the employer the supply or provision of which is necessary to the employment,

Unless –

(i)                   The deduction is required or authorised to be made by virtue of a term (whether express or implied and, if express, whether oral or in writing) of the contract of employment made between the employer and the employee, and

(ii)                 The deduction is of an amount that is fair and reasonable having regard to all the circumstances (including the of the wages of the employee), and

(iii)                Before the time of the act or omission or the provision of the goods or services, the employee has been furnished with –

(i) in case the term referred to in subparagraph (i) is in writing, a copy thereof,

(ii) in any other case, notice in writing of the existence and effect of the term, and

(iv)                in case the deduction is in respect of an act or omission of the employee, the employee    has been furnished, at least one week before the making of the deduction, with particulars in writing of the act or omission and the amount of the deduction 

(v)                 in case the deduction is in respect of compensation for loss or damage sustained by the employer as a result of an act or omission of the employee, the deduction is of an amount not exceeding the amount of the loss or the cost of the damage, and

(vi)               in case the deduction is in respect of goods or services supplied or provided as aforesaid, the deduction is of an amount not exceeding the cost to the employer of the goods or services, and

(vii)             the deduction or, if the total amount payable to the employer in respect of the act or omission or the goods or services is to be so paid by means of more than one deduction from wages of the employee, the first such deduction is made not later than 6 months after the act or omission becomes known to the employer or, as the case may be, after the provision of the goods or services.    

There was no contract of employment issued to the Complainant. The Complainant did not agree in any shape or form that any deduction could be made.

The complaint as presented is well founded and I now order the respondent to make a payment of €1,300 to the complainant. This payment should be made within 42 days from the date of this decision.

The complaint as presented is well founded and I now order the respondent to make a payment of €1,300 to the complainant. This payment should be made within 42 days from the date of this decision.

Deductions from wages. Payment of Wages Act, 1991.