Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

{A Cleaner}

{A Private Company}

Representatives

Act

Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

S13 of the Industrial Relations Act 1969

CA-00057583

5/7/2023

The Complainant was employed as a cleaner from 8th March 2022 until 9th February 2023 when she was dismissed.

The Worker complains she was unfairly dismissed. She worked part-time between eighteen to thirty hours per week.

She raised with the Managing Director that she was not being given paid breaks, holiday pay, and had no written terms and conditions. She had been told she would be paid 13.50 per hour in March 2022. There were unlawful deductions from her pay. She was not paid for travel and hours spent per day between houses. She was then dismissed by email on 9th February 2023.

The Worker says the company are doing well.

The Employer said the company set up a business to carry out residential cleaning but it was unprofitable. The company paid more than the JLC agreement at 12.50 per hour and paid money to the Worker for fuel expenses as well. The company paid an extra euro per hour to cover holiday and public holiday pay to spread the payment out. This was set out in the Workers payslips and employee handbook. The Worker never worked Mondays.

All workers were given breaks, there were breaks on the schedule. The Worker worked part-time. The Worker was paid one week’s notice as staff were paid in advance. There were complaints about the Worker’s work. There was set time allocated for each job and the Workers time-keeping was poor.

In February 2023, the company regretfully had to let the Worker and seven other staff go. They closed the residential cleaning business as they were not making any money.

In conducting my investigation, I have taken into account all relevant submissions presented to me by the parties.

Section 6 (1) of the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 as amended provides that a dismissal of an employee shall be deemed to be an unfair dismissal, unless having regard to all the circumstances there were substantial grounds justifying the dismissal. Section 6 (4) (1) of the Acts provide that without prejudice to the generality of Section 6 (1), the dismissal of an employee shall be deemed for the purpose of the Act not to be an unfair dismissal if it results wholly or mainly from one of the following:

(a)    the capability, competence and qualifications of the employee for performing work of the kind that he was employed by the employer to do:

(b)   the conduct of the employee,

(c)    the redundancy of the employee, and

(d)   the employee being unable to work or to continue to work in the position which he held without contravention (by him or by his employer) of a duty or restriction imposed by or under statute or imposed or under any statute or instrument made under statute.

Section 6 (1) (6) of the Act provides in determining whether the dismissal of the employee was an unfair dismissal or not, it shall be for the employer to show that the dismissal resulted wholly or mainly from one or more of the matters specified in subsection (4) of this section or that there were other substantial grounds justifying the dismissal.

The Worker was employed from 8th March 2022 until 9th February 2022. She alleges unfair dismissal following a conversation with the Managing Director where she raised concerns about unpaid breaks, travel time and not being given written terms and conditions.

The Employer denies any breach of S6 of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and says the dismissal was a fair dismissal as it was a redundancy. There were 8 staff in total made redundant at the time, including the Worker as they closed the residential cleaning business which was unprofitable.

Following my investigation into the dispute, I am satisfied that a number of workers were made redundant at the same time as the Worker and her dismissal was unconnected to issues raised by her with the Managing Director.

I make no recommendation in relation to this dispute.