Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Gerald  Trytsman

Sterile Services Enivornment SSE

Representatives

  N/A

Aisling McDevitt, IBEC

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-00045354-001

26/07/2021

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

CA-00045354-002

26/07/2021

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

CA-00045354-003

26/07/2021

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 45A of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946

CA-00045354-004

26/07/2021

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 23 of the Industrial Relations (Amendment) Act, 2015

CA-00045354-005

26/07/2021

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 8 of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977

CA-00045354-006

26/07/2021

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 8 of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977

CA-00045354-007

26/07/2021

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 81E of the Pensions Act, 1990 as amended by the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004

CA-00045354-012

26/07/2021

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 86 of the Employment Equality Act, 1998

CA-00045354-013

26/07/2021

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 86 of the Employment Equality Act, 1998

CA-00045354-014

26/07/2021

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 77 of the Employment Equality Act, 1998

CA-00045354-015

26/07/2021

The Complainant worked with the Respondent as a Cleaning Tech from July 2018 until 15 March 2019 and was paid €14.50 per hour. He submitted a number of complaints against the Respondent regarding their mistreatment of him during the course of his employment.

Although the Complainant’s employment ended on 15 March 2019, the herein complaints were not lodged with the WRC on 26 July 2021.

The Complainant stated at the hearing that he was seriously ill and was unable to submit the complaints within the cognizable periods. In post hearing correspondence received on 7 April 2023, the Complainant further stated that he only received minutes of a meeting that took place on 4 April 2019 on 7 June 2020 and that the Respondent deliberately withheld these documents so that he would not make a complaint within the cognisable period.

The Respondent submitted that the complaints were out of time and that I had no jurisdiction to hear them.

The Law

Section 8 of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1993 states the following in respect of time limits:

A claim for redress under this Act shall be initiated by giving a notice in writing (containing such particulars (if any) as may be specified in regulations under subsection (17) of section 41 of the Act of 2015) to the Director General—

(a) within the period of 6 months beginning on the date of the relevant dismissal, or

(b) within such period not exceeding 12 months from the date of the relevant dismissal as the adjudication officer considers appropriate, in circumstances where the adjudication officer is satisfied that the giving of the notice within the period referred to in paragraph (a) was prevented due to reasonable cause,

Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 further 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.”

and

“(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.”

Section 77 of the Employment Equality Acts states;

(5) (a) Subject to paragraph (b), a claim for redress in respect of discrimination or victimisation may not be referred under this section after the end of the period of 6 months from the date of occurrence of the discrimination or victimisation to which the case relates or, as the case may be, the date of its most recent occurrence.

(b) On application by a complainant the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission or Circuit Court, as the case may be, may, for reasonable cause, direct that in relation to the complainant paragraph (a) shall have effect as if for the reference to a period of 6 months there were substituted a reference to such period not exceeding 12 months as is specified in the direction; and, where such a direction is given, this Part shall have effect accordingly

Findings

As the Complainant’s employment with the Respondent ended on 15 March 2019 and his complaints were not submitted to the WRC until 26 July 2021, more than two years afterwards, I do not have jurisdiction to hear the complaints in accordance with the legislation outlined above.

I further note that even if I accept the Complainant’s assertion that the Respondent conspired not to issue the minutes of a meeting that took place on 4 April 2019, after his employment terminated, until 7 June 2020 so that he would not make a complaint within the cognisable period, which for the avoidance of doubt I do not, the Complainant did not refer his complaints to the WRC until more than 12 months after he received the minutes of this meeting.

CA-00045354-001 to CA-00045354-007 and CA-00045354-012 to CA-00045354-015:

I do not have jurisdiction to hear these complaints for the reasons set out above