UDD2430

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No's: ADJ-00039681 (CA-00051263-001)

BACKGROUND:

The Worker appealed the Decision of the Adjudication Officer to the Labour Court on 01 October 2023 in accordance with Section 8A of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 to 2015. A Labour Court hearing took place on 16 July 2024.

The following is the Decision of the Court:

DECISION:

Background to the Appeal

This is an appeal by Mr Krzysztof Knapik (‘the Complainant’) from a decision of an Adjudication Officer (ADJ-00039681/CA-00051263-001, dated 21 August 2023) under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 (‘the Act’). Notice of Appeal was received on 1 October 2023. The Court heard the appeal in a hybrid courtroom on 16 July 2024.

The Factual Matrix

It is common case that Parc Aviation Limited (‘the Respondent’) is a licensed employment agency and that the Complainant was engaged by it as an agency worker between 20 May 2018 and 31 December 2020. Throughout that period the Complainant was placed by the Respondent with a third-party company. It is also common case that the Complainant became a direct employee of that third-party company with effect from 1 January 2021 until his employment with it was terminated on 22 June 2022. The Complainant referred the within complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission on 22 June 2022.

The Law

Agency workers are afforded redress for unfair dismissal pursuant to section 13 of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1993. Section 13 provides as follows:

“Where, whether before, on or after the commencement of this Act, an individual agrees with another person, who is carrying on the business of an employment agency within the meaning of the Employment Agency Act 1971, and is acting in the course of that business, to do or perform personally any work or service for a third person (whether or not the third person is a party to the contract and whether or not the third person pays the wages or salary of the individual in respect of the work or service), then, for the purposes of the Principal Act, as respects a dismissal occurring after such commencement—

(a) the individual shall be deemed to be an employee employed by the third person under a contract of employment,

(b) if the contract was made before such commencement, it shall be deemed to have been made upon such commencement, and

(c) any redress under the Principal Act for unfair dismissal of the individual under the contract shall be awarded against the third person.”

Application of the Law to the Facts

The Complainant confirmed to the Court that he accepts that at all material times the Respondent was an employment agency within the meaning of section 13 and that he was engaged by the Respondent as an agency worker. It follows, therefore, having regard to section 13, that the Court can make no finding other than that the Complainant has impleaded the wrong respondent in the within proceedings.

On that basis, the Court upholds the decision of the Adjudication Officer and dismisses the appeal.

The Court so decides.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Alan Haugh
ÁM	______________________
17th July 2024	Deputy Chairman

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Decision should be addressed to Áine Maunsell, Court Secretary.