Anonymised Parties

A Warehouse Operator

A Logistics Company

Representatives

  Not present

Lisa Moloney IBEC

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act

CA-00058537-001

28/08/2023

The Employee was dismissed with less than 12 months service and submitted a Trade dispute that the dismissal was unfair and the procedure used to dismiss her was flawed. The Employer denied that the Employee was unfairly dismissed.

A Trade dispute was received by the Director General of the Workplace Relations Commission from the Employee on 28/8/2023. The said dispute was referred to me for investigation. A Hearing for that purpose was held on 26/6/2024. There was no appearance by or on behalf of the Employee at the Hearing. The Respondent and their Representative were present at the Hearing and the Employer Representative informed the Hearing that the Employee had emailed her the night before the Hearing stating she could not attend the Hearing as she could not get off work and asking could the Hearing be rescheduled to a different date. The Representative had just seen the email the morning of the Hearing.

I conclude that the Employee was notified by the WRC of the Hearing on May 20th 2024 (five weeks before the Hearing) and therefore had ample time to establish time off work to attend the Hearing or to make an application to the WRC for a postponement prior to the Hearing. The Employee did not notify the WRC of any difficulty she may have to attend the Hearing. I am satisfied that the said Employee was informed in writing of the date, time and place at which the Hearing to investigate the dispute would be held and did not attend the Hearing to present her dispute for investigation.

In the circumstances of the non attendance by the Employee to present her version of events I must conclude that the within dispute is not well founded and I recommend in favour of the Employer.

Trade Dispute