Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Pawel  Janas

The Butler's Pantry Holdings Limited

Representatives

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

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

CA-00048764-001

22/02/2022

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

CA-00048764-002

22/02/2022

The Complainant is employed as a Warehouse and Logistics Team Leader with the Respondent having commenced employment with them on 8 February 2012. He stated that he was not notified of changes to his role and that he did not receive a new contract or a promised pay increase.

CA-00048764-001:

The Complainant stated that while he was on holiday in September 2021, he discovered via a colleague that he was no longer responsible for the people management and scheduling of drivers because a new Head of Drivers role was being created which would assume responsibility for some of the duties that he was fulfilling. He stated that nobody in management spoke to him about these changes which directly impacted his role. Further to the creation of this new role, he stated that his accountability/role profile changed in November 2021 but he did not agree to these changes.

Moreover, he stated that he was left without a contract for over two years despite having requested same on number of occasions. He acknowledged that he was given a new contract in 2021 which he has but alleged that the company is now denying that he signed it.

CA-00048764-002:

The Complainant further stated that his previous manager agreed a pay increase and confirmed same during a performance review meeting held in June 2021. He stated that he had been waiting for the salary increase to be reflected in his payslip from June 2021 but as he was out of the office for 2 months, he did not have a chance to follow up on the matter. He alleged that on his return, he noticed that he did not receive the promised pay increase and when he raised it, his manager denied that it had been promised to him. He stated that the only increase he received was in October 2021, which related to a different review and a new contract.

CA-00048764-001:

The Respondent stated that the role of ‘Head Driver had always been in the company up until the previous Head Driver finished in 2016 and that it had always been the intention to bring back this role. It was alleged that the Complainant knew this as when he applied for the role of Warehouse & Logistics Team Leader it was made clear that the management of the drivers by him was temporary until the Head Driver role was brought back. When the previous Head Driver finished in the company the role of managing the drivers fell to the Production & Logistics manager. This was then passed to the Complainant as a temporary measure until the Head Driver role was re-introduced. This role was brought back as the company understood the need for the role to return. The Respondent alleged that the Complainant’s role still involves an element of managing the drivers, which includes the management of stock and supplies to the stores. The Complainant had asked for some of the driver role to be removed from his contract however, as his title stated logistics leader, the Respondent did not find they were able to remove this and instead a line was added that stated it would be reviewed. The Respondent further stated that the Complainant’s contract originally stipulated “Occasional support to drivers in busy periods such as Christmas when there is downtime in the stores” and was amended to state “Occasional support to drivers in busy periods such as Christmas when there is downtime in Stores (open for review and consideration)

The Respondent also stated that role of ‘Head Driver’ was re-introduced and was emailed out to all internal team members on 22/09/2021 including the Complainant who chose not to apply for the role even though he was in work at the time. The change in the Complainant’s role as a result of the introduction of the Head Driver role was clarified to the Complainant in a meeting on the 2nd of November 2021 and was subsequently confirmed by him in an email.

The Respondent stated that the Complainant received a contract for his current role on 20/10/2020 which he chose not to sign.

CA-00048764-002:

The Respondent stated that although a salary review meeting was held on 2 of June 2021, during which the Complainant expressed an interest in the role as Production & Logistics Manager which he was encouraged in the meeting to apply for and subsequently did, there was no salary increase promised to him. It was asserted that his actual review was conducted in October 2021 and his salary was increased to €30,000. The Respondent denied that this review was in relation to a different contract which the Complainant alleged. The Respondent subsequently reviewed the Complainant’s benchmarking exercise and returned with an offer of €32,000 yearly salary. It was also agreed that they would honour a back payment from the 11th of August 2021, which is the date he returned from sick leave, to the 1st of October 2021 but the Complainant declined this offer.

CA-00048764-001:

THE LAW

The Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, section 3, sets out the basic terms of employment which the employer must provide to the employee in a written form within two months of starting the employment.

(1) An employer shall, not later than 2 months after the commencement of an employee’s employment with the employer, give or cause to be given to the employee a statement in writing containing the following particulars of the terms of the employee’s employment, that is to say –

a)      the full names of the employer and the employee,

b)      the address of the employer in the State or, where appropriate, the address of the principal place of the relevant business of the employer in the State or the registered office (within the meaning of the Companies Act, 1963),

c)       the place of work or where there is no fixed or main place of work, a statement specifying that the employee is required or permitted to work at various places,

d)      the title of the job or nature of the work for which the employee is employed,

e)       the date of commencement of the employee’s contract of employment,

f)        in the case of a temporary contract of employment, the expected duration thereof of, if the contract of employment is for a fixed term, the date on which the contract expires,

g)      the rate or method of calculation of the employee’s remuneration,

h)      the length of the intervals between the times at which remuneration is paid, whether a week, a month or any other interval,

i)        any terms or conditions relating to hours of work (including overtime),

j)        any terms or conditions relating to paid leave (other than paid sick leave),

k)       any terms or conditions relating to –

l)        (i)incapacity for work due to sickness or injury and paid sick leave, and

m)    (ii pensions and pension schemes.,

n)      the period of notice which the employee is required to give and entitled to receive (whether by or under statute or under the terms of the employee’s contract of employment) to determine the employee’s contract of employment or, where this cannot be indicated when the information is given, the method for determining such periods of notice,

o)      a reference to any collective agreements which directly affect the terms and conditions of employee’s employment including, where the employer is not a party to such agreements, particulars of the bodies or institutions by whom they were made.

The Act also requires this statement to be signed and dated by or on behalf of the employer and the employer is also required to retain a copy of this statement for the period of employment and for a period of 1 year after the employment ceases.

While there was a dispute between the parties as to when the contract was issued and received, I find that, as the Complainant himself acknowledged receipt of his contract of employment, there is no breach in respect of this section of the Act.

Section 5 of the Act states as follows in relation to notification of changes:

I find that the Complainant was notified in writing of the change to his job title in accordance with the above section of the Act. Specifically, he received the minutes of the 2 November 2021 meeting on 8 November 2021 wherein the change in the nature of his duties was confirmed in writing. While he stated that he did not agree to these changes to his duties, there was no record of any grievance having been raised by him and the Respondent has met their obligations under this particular section of the Act by informing him of the amendment in writing.

CA-00048764-002:

Section 41(6) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 states

(6) Subject to subsection (8), an adjudication officer shall not entertain a complaint referred to him or her under this section if it has been presented to the Director General after the expiration of the period of 6 months beginning on the date of the contravention to which the complaint relates.

8) An adjudication officer may entertain a complaint or dispute to which this section applies presented or referred to the Director General after the expiration of the period referred to in subsection (6) or (7) (but not later than 6 months after such expiration), as the case may be, if he or she is satisfied that the failure to present the complaint or refer the dispute within that period was due to reasonable cause.

This complaint relates to an alleged failure of the Respondent to deliver on a pay increase which was allegedly promised to the Complainant in June 2021 but which the Respondent disputed was made. As it was referred to the WRC in February 2022 however, more than six months after the alleged contravention in June 2021, I do not have jurisdiction to hear the matter.

I further note that the Complainant was sent an email on 8 July 2021 wherein it was proposed in writing that his salary would be increased to €32,000 but which the Complainant indicated his unhappiness with. Notwithstanding this unhappiness however, I am satisfied the Respondent has met their obligations under this particular section of the Act by informing him of the proposed amendment to his salary in writing.

Finally, while an Adjudication Officer does not normally comment on such matters, it is worth highlighting, in this exceptional instance, that the written submission prepared by the Respondent contained an extraordinary level of detail, including inter alia minutes of lengthy meetings with the Complainant, extensive email correspondence as well as detailed job descriptions, only a summary of which has been captured above, and demonstrated, to their credit, a remarkable level of engagement with the Complainant.

CA-00048764-001:

I find that the complaint is not well founded for the reasons set out above.

CA-00048764-001:

I find that the complaint is not well founded for the reasons set out above.