Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Aliyah  Deery

Cuala Senior Care Ltd.

Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

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Representatives

Act

Complaint Reference No.

Date of Receipt

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

CA-00060200-001

23/11/2023

The complaint form lodged by the complainant with the WRC had the respondent named as Homefield Care Ltd. The respondent highlighted at the commencement of the hearing that Homefield Care Ltd was merged by acquisition with Cuala Senior Care Ltd in January 2024.

The complainant states that she passed the interview stage of the job application for homecare assistant in May 2023 with the respondent. She states that she received correspondence confirming that when she had completed training with the organisation she would be employed. The complainant states that following three days of unpaid training along with online assessments, she was then informed that because she was under the age of 18, the respondent could not employ her until August.

The complainant states that she contacted the respondent in August to tell them she had turned 18 and she states that following a lot of correspondence back and forth, she was employed as a homecare assistant on 4 October 2023. She states that the respondent then told her that she had to undertake eight hours of work shadowing but only rostered her for two hours. She states that she was paid for these two hours and was awaiting further hours each week but none were forthcoming.

The complainant states that she made several attempts to contact the company seeking hours but to no avail. She states that she started looking elsewhere for a new job and feels very let down by this employer after completing her days of training and work shadowing.

The respondent states that the complainant commenced employment with the company on 19 September 2023 and was given a copy of her terms and conditions of employment on 21 September 2023 which she signed on 22 September 2023. The respondent submitted a copy of same in its written submissions to the WRC.

The respondent states that during the month of October, the complainant completed two hours of shadowing. It states that the complainant’s location and availability had changed and she informed the respondent of same. The respondent states that throughout October and early November 2023, the respondent was in frequent contact with the complainant but was not able to find hours within her limited availability in the areas she could access.

The respondent states that the complainant was only available for afternoon hours on most days with the exception of Friday when she was available from 9.30 and Sunday from 11.15. The respondent states that the vast majority of its clients receive morning care to get them up and ready for the day and/or evening care to get them ready for bed and afternoon hours are not often required. The respondent states that ultimately due to the complainant’s limited availability as well as a change in her location and the fact that she did not drive, which vastly limited the clients she could reach, it was not possible for the schedulers to find client hours for her and this was communicated to the complainant repeatedly.     

The complainant lodged a claim stating that there was a breach by the respondent in respect of the Terms of Employment Information Act.

Section 3 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 provides:

3.—(1) An employer shall, not later than one month after the commencement of an employee’s employment with the employer, give or cause to be given to the employee a statement in writing containing the following particulars of the terms of the employee’s employment, that is to say—” with a list of terms which must be included in the contract.

While the complainant outlined difficulties in relation to being given hours; the respondent stated that unfortunately due to a change in circumstances post commencement of employment, of both the complainant in terms of location and hours she was available to work around her studies at College and the respondent in terms of its clients, it proved impossible to schedule hours of work for the complainant.

Based on the evidence heard, I find that the complainant was issued with a copy of her terms and conditions of employment on 21 September 2023 and I note from the documentation submitted that she signed same on 22 September 2023. In all of the circumstances, I find that the complainant has not established a breach of section 3 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994. Accordingly, I find that the within complaint is not well-founded.

I find that the within complaint is not well -founded.

Terms of Employment (Information) Act