Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Minodora  Pit

Les Byrne T/A El Vino

Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

{text}

{text}

Representatives

  Self-Represented

 Non-Attendance

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 39 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967

CA-00059427-001

16/10/2023

The Complainant was employed as a server with the Respondent restaurant which closed on 31 August 2023. She was originally employed on 38 hours per week from August 2020, but these hours were reduced  over time. From 1 January 2023 she worked a 15-hour week at a rate of €12.44 per hour to the date of termination of contract. (Wage slips were exhibited by the Complainant). The Complainant is seeking her statutory redundancy  payment under the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 (“the Act”).

The Complainant gave evidence that the Redundancy was not processed by her  employer in a proper way. The business closed and she heard nothing from the Respondent.

The Complainant gave evidence that though she commenced employment on a 39-hour week basis, this reduced over time, and she worked a fifteen-hour week from January 1 2023 until the termination of contract date on 31 August 2023.

The Respondent did not attend. I am reasonably satisfied that the Workplace Relations Commission made every effort to contact him at the addresses supplied by the Complainant.

The entitlement to a redundancy payment is set out in Section 7 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967 which states as follows:

7(1) An employee, if he is dismissed by his employer by reason of redundancy or is laid off or kept on short-time for the minimum period, shall, subject to this Act, be entitled to the payment of moneys which shall be known (and are in this Act referred to) as redundancy payment provided—

(a) he has been employed for the requisite period, and

(b) he was an employed contributor in employment which was insurable for all benefits under the Social Welfare Acts, 1952 to 1966, immediately before the date of the termination of his employment or had ceased to be ordinarily employed in employment which was so insurable in the period of four years ending on that date.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), an employee who is dismissed shall be taken to be dismissed by reason of redundancy if for one or more reasons not related to the employee concerned the dismissal is attributable wholly or mainly to—

(a) the fact that his employer has ceased, or intends to cease, to carry on the business for the purposes of which the employee was employed by him, or has ceased or intends to cease, to carry on that business in the place where the employee was so employed, or

(b) the fact that the requirements of that business for employees to carry out work of a particular kind in the place where he was so employed have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish, or

(c) the fact that his employer has decided to carry on the business with fewer or no employees, whether by requiring the work for which the employee had been employed (or had been doing before his dismissal) to be done by other employees or otherwise, or

(d) the fact that his employer has decided that the work for which the employee had been employed (or had been doing before his dismissal) should henceforward be done in a different manner for which the employee is not sufficiently qualified or trained, or

(e) the fact that his employer has decided that the work for which the employee had been employed (or had been doing before his dismissal) should henceforward be done by a person who is also capable of doing other work for which the employee is not sufficiently qualified or trained,

Based on the uncontested evidence of the Complainant I find that she was made redundant under Section 7 (2)(a). I allow the Complainants appeal and I award her statutory redundancy on the following basis. Section 4(1) of the 1967 Act states “Subject to this section and to section 47 this Act shall apply to employees employed in employment which is insurable for all benefits under the Social Welfare Acts, 1952 to 1966 and to employees who were so employed in such employment in the period of two years ending on the date of termination of employment.”

I allow the Complainant’s appeal and , subject to the Complainant being in employment which was insurable for this purpose under the Social Welfare Acts, she is  entitled to a redundancy payment of two weeks per year (or part thereof) plus a week on the following basis;

Date of Commencement: 10 August 2020

Date of Reckonable Service for Redundancy Payment Ceasing on: 31 August 2023

Gross Weekly Wage: €187.50

Redundancy Payment Act 1967.