Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Patrick Tighe

Metropolitan Films International Limited  

Representatives

Liz Murray, Irish Film Workers Association

Ciarán Loughran, Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation

Act

Complaint Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 14 of the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act, 2003

CA-00032884-001

11/12/2019

Mr Tighe is a master carpenter and he worked on construction sets for films and television programmes developed by an employer who he refers to as “Metropolitan Films” with an address at Ardmore Studios, Bray, County Wicklow.  He said that he started working in construction on films around 2003, and, when he finished up in 2016, he was in the role of supervising carpenter.  At the hearing, he said that he normally worked around 54 hours a week.  His hourly rate of pay was €32.25.  He and his colleagues were employed for the duration that a film was in production, and then they stopped working and waited for a new film to start.

On February 5th 2016, just before lunchtime, Mr Tighe said the construction manager on the set told him that there would be no more work from the following day.  He said that the film was still in production and that there was work to be done.  He said that the company was letting people go and “I was one of them.”  He said that he isn’t 100% sure of the reason his employment was terminated and he thought he would be called back.  He said that, out of pride, he didn’t ask for an explanation.

On behalf of Mr Tighe, Ms Murray said that employees working on construction on film sets are often under the impression that they work for the construction manager, who, in general, is in business on his own account, but does not employee the construction crew.  The production company may not even be aware when an employee is dismissed.  She said that Mr Tighe was dismissed without notice and without the holiday pay that was due to him.  She said that the respondent eventually paid him his holiday pay.

On behalf of the respondent, Mr Loughran submitted that Mr Tighe wasn’t employed by them but by a designated activity company called “PD Three Film Productions DAC” which was dissolved on May 27th 2020.  In the first instance however, Mr Loughran said that Mr Tighe’s complaint was submitted outside the maximum statutory time limit of 12 months within which a complaint can be adjudicated on at the WRC.

Before proceeding any further with Mr Tighe’s complaint, I intend to deal with the issue of the time limit.

Mr Loughran said that the complainant was last engaged with PD Three TV Productions DAC, a company that shares a director with the respondent, and that his employment with that company ended on February 5th 2016.  As this complaint was lodged with the WRC on December 11th 2019, well over 12 months since the complainant last worked with PD Three, it has been submitted outside the time limit of six months which is set out at s.41(6) and the time lime of 12 months which is set out at s.41(8) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015.  Mr Loughran submitted that, as the complaint was submitted well outside these time limits, I have no jurisdiction to hear them.

For the complainant, Ms Murray submitted that there is a provision in a 1991 agreement with the respondent, that workers may move to another employer if the company they are working with lays them off.  She said that this 1991 agreement was the basis for a further agreement in 2012, when Mr Morgan O’Sullivan sought a local deal with the unions representing construction workers.

In his evidence at the hearing, the complainant said that he didn’t know why he was let go and he thought he would be called back.  He said that he went on to work on other jobs, but that he never took up permanent employment.

I have considered the complainant’s arguments, and, it is apparent that he worked for around 15 years until he was dismissed during the production of the third season of “Penny Dreadful” on February 5th 2016.  We know from the union’s submission that, from early in 2018, relations between the respondent and IFWA became strained following the appearance of the shop steward, John Arkins at the Oireachtas Committee on Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sports and the Gaeltacht.  Correspondence submitted by IFWA revealed that, in September 2018, notice of industrial action was issued to the employer on the production of the “Vikings” series and it appears that there was a brief work stoppage.  From that point on, it seems that, when they finished up on their current assignments, the respondent did not call IFWA members back to work.

Unlike his colleagues who have brought similar complaints to the WRC, the complainant was not involved in the 2018 work stoppage because he wasn’t working on any of the respondent’s productions after February 2016.  I understand that Season 3 of “Penny Dreadful” finished in 2017 and that it was followed by productions of “Into the Badlands and “Vikings,” which both finished in December 2018.  It is likely therefore, that there was work was available for a master carpenter.  The complainant may not have been available to work on these productions, due to having taken up work elsewhere, or, he may have been dismissed in February 2016.  Whatever the reason, when the respondent didn’t offer him work again, he didn’t raise a grievance.  As he submitted this complaint to the WRC on December 11th 2019, it is considerably outside the statutory time limit and I must conclude that I have no jurisdiction to proceed with my enquiry.

I have concluded that this complaint was submitted to the WRC after the expiry of the 12-month extended time limit within which a complaint must be presented for adjudication.  I decide therefore, that I have no jurisdiction to proceed with a hearing.

Expiry of the time limit for submitting a complaint