Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Clifford  Darcy

 Bus Eireann

Representatives

  Michael Darcy

Employee Relations Manager

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 8 of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977

CA-00062481-001

28/03/2024

The complaint relates to an unfair dismissal which is alleged to have occurred on 17th October 2023.

The respondent’s position is that it is not the complainant’s employer. The respondent stated that the complainant is employed by a third-party contractor who provides transportation services to the respondent on a contract basis. As the complainant is employed by another entity, the respondent’s position is that the matter is not properly before the Adjudication Services of the WRC.

The complainant attended the adjudication hearing with his employer. The complainant accepts that he is not employed directly by the respondent but is required to comply with the respondent’s code of conduct and on that basis the complainant’s spokesperson at the adjudication hearing stated that there is a contract of employment in place with the respondent.

The Applicable Law

Section 1 of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977 provides as follows:

“dismissal”, in relation to an employee, means—

(a) the termination by his employer of the employee’s contract of employment with the employer, whether prior notice of the termination was or was not given to the employee,

(b) the termination by the employee of his contract of employment with his employer, whether prior notice of the termination was or was not given to the employer, in circumstances in which, because of the conduct of the employer, the employee was or would have been entitled, or it was or would have been reasonable for the employee, to terminate the contract of employment without giving prior notice of the termination to the employer, or

(c) the expiration of a contract of employment for a fixed term without its being renewed under the same contract or, in the case of a contract for a specified purpose (being a purpose of such a kind that the duration of the contract was limited but was, at the time of its making, incapable of precise ascertainment), the cesser of the purpose;

“employee” means an individual who has entered into or works under (or, where the employment has ceased, worked under) a contract of employment and, in relation to redress for a dismissal under this Act, includes, in the case of the death of the employee concerned at any time following the dismissal, his personal representative;

“employer”, in relation to an employee, means the person by whom the employee is (or, in a case where the employment has ceased, was) employed under a contract of employment and an individual in the service of a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act 2001 (as amended by the Local Government Reform Act 2014)], shall be deemed to be employed by the local authority;

I note the respondent’s position that it is not the complainant’s employer. I further note that the complainant attended the adjudication hearing with his employer who is supportive of the complainant in respect of the issue at hand.

In deciding this complaint, I note the definition of dismissal in the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977 at Section 1(a) which provides that a dismissal occurs where the contract of employment is terminated by the employer. This did not happen in this case as the complainant remains employed by his employer and the respondent to this complaint did not employ the complainant at any time. On that basis, I find that the complaint against the respondent is misconceived.

For the reasons stated above, it is my decision that the complaint of unfair dismissal is not well founded.

Unfair dismissal, incorrect respondent.