ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00036489
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Parties | Klaudia Zwolinska | Rosderra Irish Meats ULC |
Representatives |
| IBEC |
Complaint(s):
Act | Complaint/Dispute Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 24 of the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000 | CA-00047724-001 | 17/12/2021 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 15/09/2022
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Marguerite Buckley
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 following the referral of the complaint(s) to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint.
Background:
This complaint was that the Complainant did not receive the National minimum rate of pay. The Complainant commenced working for the Respondent on the 27 July 2021. She submitted that she worked 51 hours per week. |
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
The Complainant explained that she got a bonus of €130 each week. She said that her payment for 39 hours working was €338.06. She advised she was paid less than €13 per hour over time. She said she worked about 10 hours overtime every week. Her case was that she was getting less than the minimum wage. |
Summary of Respondent’s Case:
The Respondent's case is that the Complainant had not complied with the requirements of section 24 of the Minimum Wage Act 2000 prior to referring her dispute to the WRC. Its case was that I did not have jurisdiction to entertain the dispute. Without prejudice to same it provided me with a sample payslip. It showed that the Complainant's hourly rate of pay was €11.56 which was 13.4% above the national minimum wage. |
Findings and Conclusions:
National Minimum Wage Act 2000 Part 5 Disputes About Entitlement and Enforcement Hearing of Disputes 24. Disputes about entitlement to minimum hourly rate of pay (1) For the purposes of this section, a dispute between an employee and his or her employer as to the employee's entitlements under this Act exists where the employee and his or her employer cannot agree on the appropriate entitlement of the employee to pay in accordance with this Act resulting in an alleged underpayment to the employee. (2) The Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission shall not entertain a dispute in relation to an employee's entitlements under this Act and, accordingly, shall not refer the dispute to an adjudication officer under section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015— (a) unless the employee— (i) has obtained under section 23 a statement of his or her average hourly rate of pay in respect of the relevant pay reference period, or (ii) having requested the statement, has not been provided with it within the time limited by that section for the employer to supply the information, and a period of 6 months (or such longer period, not exceeding 12 months, as the [adjudication officer] may allow) has not elapsed since that statement was obtained or time elapsed, as the case may be, or (b) where, in respect of the same alleged under-payment, the employer is or has been— (i) the subject of investigation by an inspector under section […] 34, or (ii) prosecuted for an offence under section 35.
In Mansion House Ltd v Izquierdo MWD 3/2004, the Labour Court held that, where a claimant had failed to request a statement in accordance with s.23(1) of the Act, the “appropriate course of action” was for the rights commissioner to decline jurisdiction without prejudice to the claimant's right to re-enter the same complaint having complied with the said subsection. As the Complainant failed to request the required statement set out in Section 23 of the Act, I do not have jurisdiction to hear this case. |
Decision:
Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under Schedule 6 of that Act.
This complaint is not well founded. |
Dated: 15th November 2022
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Marguerite Buckley
Key Words:
Disputes About Entitlement and Enforcement Statement in accordance with s.23(1) of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 |