Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Daniel O’Connell

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 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991

CA-00033705-001

10/01/2020

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997

CA-00033705-002

Withdrawn

10/01/2020

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 7 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994

CA-00033705-003

10/01/2020

Mr O’Connell is a carpenter and he worked in the construction department on 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 worked for the company and subsidiary companies since 2000, when he started on “The Count of Monte Christo.”  At the hearing, he said that he normally worked around 54 hours a week.  His hourly rate of pay was €25.12.  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.  Mr O’Connell said that when he finished working on “Into the Badlands” on September 22nd 2017, he went to work with a different company, “TRS” on the production of a film called “The Rhythm Section.”  On behalf of the respondent, Mr Loughran argued that TRS is a different company, and, since Mr O’Connell last worked on Badlands 3 in September 2017, his complaint is 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 O’Connell’s complaints, I intend to deal with the issue of the time limit.

While the parties are named in this decision, for the remainder of this document, I will refer to Mr O’Connell as “the complainant,” and to Metropolitan Films as “the respondent.”

Mr Loughran said that the complainant was last engaged with Badlands Three TV Productions DAC, a company that shares a director with the respondent, and that his employment with that company ended on September 22nd 2017.  As these complaints were lodged with the WRC on January 10th 2020, well over 12 months since the complainant last worked with Badlands Three, they have 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 complaints were 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 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 worked on a sequence of films with the respondent, including nine months on “King Arthur,” and he understood that he could be laid off and called back at any moment.  He said that contracts were normally issued when a job finished, and then he was paid holiday pay.  He said that he kept himself available for film work.  Four or five weeks after he finished on the third season of Badlands in September 2017, he said that he made enquiries about more work, but he “got the run around.”  He said that he applied for a job with the respondent in 2018, although he couldn’t remember the name of the film being produced.  He said that one of the construction managers on that film told him that he wouldn’t be re-employed.

I have considered the complainant’s arguments, and, it is apparent that he worked on Badlands 3 until September 22nd 2017 and that, following a period of lay-off, he got work with a separate employer, TRS, on the production of “The Rhythm Section.”

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 working with a different employer from shortly after September 2017.  I understand that Season 3 of “Into the Badlands” finished in August 2018 and season 6 of “Vikings” finished in December that year, so it is likely that work was available for a stagehand / carpenter.  The complainant may not have been available to work on these productions, or, he may not have been called in.  If he wasn’t called in during 2018, he did not raise a grievance.  As he submitted these complaints to the WRC on January 10th 2020, they are considerably outside the statutory time limit and I must conclude that I have no jurisdiction to proceed with my enquiry.

I have concluded that these complaints were submitted to the WRC more than 15 months 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 adjudicate on the complaints.

Expiry of the time limit for submitting a complaint