ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00043259
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Parties | Valentine Forde | MRSE Ltd. |
Representatives | Self | No attendance by, or on behalf of, the Respondent |
Complaint:
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-00053660-001 | 09/11/2022 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 22/01/2024
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Marie Flynn
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 following the referral of the complaint to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint.
This matter was heard by way of remote hearing pursuant to the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2020 and S.I. 359 of 2020, which designates the WRC as a body empowered to hold remote hearings.
At the adjudication hearing, the Complainant was advised that, in accordance with the Workplace Relations (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2021, hearings before the Workplace Relations Commission are now held in public and, in most cases, decisions are no longer anonymised.
The Adjudication Services of the WRC wrote the Respondent on 6 December 2023 at the address supplied by the Complainant to notify it of the arrangements for the hearing in this case. The correspondence from the WRC was returned on 3 January 2024 as undelivered because the Respondent was not known at that address.
On 18 January 2024 a link to the remote hearing was emailed to the Respondent using the email address provided by the Complainant. The email was returned as undelivered. The Case Officer rang the Respondent at the phone number provided by the Complainant but he did not receive a response.
Background:
The Complainant was employed by the Respondent as a contract fitter from April 2021 until 4 November 2022. He was paid €2,000 gross per fortnight. |
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
The Complainant submits that he was not paid his wages for the fortnight commencing on Monday the 24 October 2022 and ending on Friday 4 November 2022. The Complainant submits that the outstanding wages amounted to €1,671 and that he is also owed €115.36 in respect of unpaid expenses. The Complainant submits that he was paid fortnightly by the Respondent and that there have been many late payments during the period of his employment with the Respondent. The Complainant submits that he requested payment via text message from the Respondent but despite several text messages he did not receive a reply. |
Summary of Respondent’s Case:
The Respondent did not attend that adjudication hearing. |
Findings and Conclusions:
Outstanding Wages Section 5(1) of the Payment of Wages Act prohibits an employer from making a deduction from the wages of an employee unless certain conditions are fulfilled. Section 5(6) provides that the non-payment of wages which are properly payable to an employee by an employer shall be treated as a deduction unless it was due to a computational error. I have included the relevant sections of the Act below. Section 5 (1) of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 provides that – “An employer shall not make a deduction from the wages of an employee (or receive any payment from an employee) unless— (a) the deduction (or payment) is required or authorised to be made by virtue of any statute or any instrument made under statute, (b) the deduction (or payment) is required or authorised to be made by virtue of a term of the employee's contract of employment included in the contract before, and in force at the time of, the deduction or payment, or (c) in the case of a deduction, the employee has given his prior consent in writing to it.” Section 5(6) of the Act provides that where – “(a) the total amount of any wages that are paid on any occasion by an employer to an employee is less than the total amount of wages that is properly payable by him to the employee on that occasion (after making any deductions therefrom that fall to be made and are in accordance with this Act), or (b) none of the wages that are properly payable to an employee by an employer on any occasion (after making any such deductions as aforesaid) are paid to the employee, then, except in so far as the deficiency or non-payment is attributable to an error of computation, the amount of the deficiency or non-payment shall be treated as a deduction made by the employerfrom the wages of the employee on the occasion.”
As the Respondent did not attend the hearing, my findings and conclusion are based on the uncontested evidence, both written and oral, of the Complainant. Based on the uncontested evidence of the Complainant, I find that the Respondent failed to pay the Complainant two weeks’ wages which amounts to €1,671 gross.
Outstanding Expenses Section 1 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 provides the following definition of wages: Wages, in relation to an employee, means any sums payable to the employee by the employer in connection with his employment, including – (a) Any fee, bonus or commission, or any holiday, sick or maternity pay, or any other emolument, referable to his employment, whether payable under his contract of employment or otherwise, and (b) Any sum payable to the employee upon the termination by the employer of his contract of employment without his having given to the employee the appropriate amount of notice of the termination, being a sum paid in lieu of the giving of such notice. Provided however that the following payments shall not be regarded as wages for the purposes of this definition: (i) Any payment in respect of expenses incurred by the employee in carrying out his employment. Accordingly, I find that the outstanding expenses due to the Complainant do not come within the scope of the Payment of Wages Act. |
Decision:
Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under Schedule 6 of that Act.
Based on the uncontested evidence of the Complainant, I declare this complaint to be partially well founded and I direct the Respondent to pay the Complainant outstanding wages of €1,671 gross. |
Dated: 15-02-24
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Marie Flynn
Key Words:
Payment of Wages – no show Respondent |