Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

Driver

Delivery service

Representatives

  Self

 Consultant HR Adviser

Act

Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969

IR - SC - 00000592

28/08/2022

There were two referral/complaints by the former employee concerning his former employer.   This is the recommendation under the Industrial Relations Act where the dispute was described on the WRC form as one concerned with ‘Bullying and Harassment Procedures’.

The worker was employed as a driver from 03/11/2020 until 31/07/22. At the hearing, the worker was somewhat unclear as to why he had submitted two different claims-one of unfair dismissal. However, on his form he did state that the issues were the way in which the employer spoke to him regarding vaccination-or not having a vaccination which caused him extreme stress; he referred to a manager speaking about him to other workers in the employment about his breaks because he was taking them at home. When he complained to the employer about the manager watching his house and an invasion of his privacy, this was brushed aside. On another incident he accidentally ran over a dog and expressed anxiety about returning to that estate to make deliveries, but the employer refused to see why he had a difficulty in doing his job leading to more stress and anxiety.  He also stated that he was bullied and harassed by a named supervisor, that all was going well in his employment until that person took over. He referred to an issue over parcels where his problems at work began. The issue was that another worker was adding parcels to his pile and speaking to him in an unfair manner. When he spoke about this to the employer the first time, he was told that he was happy with his work, but when it happened again and he contacted the employer he shouted at him.

At the hearing he stated that he could not complain about his treatment in the employment as most of his issues were with the owner of the company. He was not aware of any staff handbook in the office.

The position of the employer is that the worker never put in any paperwork of a complaint. It was other employees who claimed that they were bullied by the worker in this case. They had a lot of problems during Covid, and the employer was very clear that he wanted employees to be vaccinated but in the event that policy never came into play. Asked if there was an anti-bullying policy in the employment, the employer stated there was a handbook in the office and the worker never raised any grievance. They had quite a good relationship until the complaints about him began to come in. If he had received a grievance from this worker, he would have looked at it. When a complaint was made by another worker about the worker in this case, that was investigated.

In reality the worker in this case made verbal complaints about a supervisor, another worker and expressed his concerns about returning to a particular part of a route on what he expressed as health and safety grounds. I am satisfied that he was never told that he could put his complaints in writing and they would be investigated. While it not for the adjudication officer to investigate these matters, I can express a doubt that the nature of the issues raised by the worker fell within the range of bullying, as defined. His complaints about the employer were about his responses to this workers complaints. The point is taken that when complaints were made in writing about this worker, they were investigated and in fact resulted in disciplinary processes.  I also note the commitments given at the hearing that there has since been a complete overhaul of the grievance/policy/disciplinary procedures within the employment, but nonetheless I cannot ignore the fact that this worker was not provided with a grievance procedure, or an anti-bullying policy which he could use within the employment. Within the statement of terms of employment provided by the employer, he was informed where he could go for details of a disciplinary procedure, but there was no reference to a grievance procedure, or any other intra employee policies including an anti-bullying policy.  And his point about where he could go if the issues were with the employer at the time are valid. In the circumstances. I have decided to recommend a nominal amount of compensation to the worker, due to that absence of written or adequate policies which he was informed of, or which existed at all for the purposes of addressing his issues with a supervisor, another employee, or the employer.

IR - SC – 00000592  I recommend that the employer pay his former employee €450 in compensation to resolve this dispute.