RPD244

PARTIES:

DIVISION:

SUBJECT:

Appeal of Adjudication Officer Decision No's: ADJ-00045221 (CA-00055677-001)

BACKGROUND:

The Worker appealed the Decision of the Adjudication Officer to the Labour Court on 29 November 2023 in accordance with the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2014. A Labour Court hearing took place on 12 April 2024. The following is the Decision of the Court.

DECISION:

Background to the Appeal

This is an appeal by Mr Tadhg Keane (‘the Complainant’) from a decision of an Adjudication Officer (ADJ-00045221, dated 19 October 2023) under the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 (‘the Act’). Notice of Appeal was received in the Court on 29 November 2023. The Court heard the appeal in Dublin on 12 April 2024.

Preliminary Issue

It was submitted on behalf of the Respondent that the Complainant had referred his complaint under the Act outside the relevant statutory timeframe, the Complainant’s termination having taken effect on 12 March 2021 (following his written resignation dated 11 February 2021) and the complaint having been received by the Workplace Relations Commission on 23 March 2023. None of the aforementioned dates was seriously contested by the Complainant.

The Law

Section 24 0f the Act provides:

“24. Time-limit on claims for redundancy payment

(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, an employee shall not be entitled to a lump sum unless before the end of the period of 52 weeks beginning on the date of dismissal or the date of termination of employment—

(a) the payment has been agreed and paid, or

(b) the employee has made a claim for the payment by notice in writing given to the employer, or

(c) a question as to the right of the employee to the payment, or as to the amount of the payment, has been referred to the Director General under section 39.

(2) Notwithstanding any provision of this Act, an employee shall not be entitled to a weekly payment unless he or she has become entitled to a lump sum.

(2A) Where an employee who fails to make a claim for a lump sum within the period of 52 weeks mentioned in subsection (1) (as amended) makes such a claim before the end of the period of 104 weeks beginning on the date of dismissal or the date of termination of employment, the adjudication officer, if he or she is satisfied that the employee would have been entitled to the lump sum and that the failure was due to a reasonable cause, may declare the employee to be entitled to the lump sum and the employee shall thereupon become so entitled.

(3) Notwithstanding subsection (2A), where an employee establishes to the satisfaction of the Director General—

(a) that failure to make a claim for a lump sum before the end of the period of 104 weeks mentioned in that subsection was caused by his or her ignorance of the identity of his or her employer or employers or by his or her ignorance of a change of employer involving his or her dismissal and engagement under a contract with another employer, and

(b) that such ignorance arose out of or was contributed to by a breach of a statutory duty to give the employee either notice of his or her proposed dismissal or a redundancy certificate, the period of 104 weeks shall commence from such date as the Director General at his discretion considers reasonable having regard to all the circumstances.”

Discussion and Decision

It is apparent that the Complainant referred his complaint under the Act to the Workplace Relations Commission over 105 weeks after his employment had terminated. The Complainant cannot therefore seek to rely on s.24(2A) of the Act to seek an extension of time for reasonable cause. Nor does the Act give an Adjudication Officer or the Court any discretion to extend time to bring a complaint beyond 104 weeks save where s.24(3) of the Act has been successfully invoked by a Complainant. No application under that subsection was made in this case. It follows, therefore, that the Complainant’s complainant is out of time, the appeal fails and the decision of the Adjudication Officer is upheld.

The Court so decides.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Alan Haugh
FC	______________________
30 April 2024	Deputy Chairman

NOTE

Enquiries concerning this Decision should be addressed to Fiona Corcoran, Court Secretary.