ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00053757
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Parties | Wesley Patrick Teixeira | Compass Catering Services Ireland Limited |
Representatives | Self | Aleksandra Tiilikainen IBEC |
Complaint:
Act | Complaint Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 | CA-00065742-001 | 02/09/2024 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 15/01/2025
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Monica Brennan
Procedure:
In accordance with section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015, following the referral of the complaint to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint.
The matter was heard by way of remote hearing pursuant to the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 and S.I. 359/2020, which designated the WRC as a body empowered to hold remote hearings.
At the adjudication hearing, the parties were advised that hearings before the Workplace Relations Commission are held in public and, in most cases, decisions are not anonymised. The parties were also advised that Adjudication Officers hear evidence on oath or affirmation and all participants who gave evidence were sworn in. Both parties were offered the opportunity to cross-examine the evidence.
Where I deemed it necessary, I made my own inquiries to better understand the facts of the case and in fulfilment of my duties under statute.
Background:
Both the Complainant and Leona Kerr, witness for the Respondent, were sworn in and gave evidence during the hearing. Maria Silva, Interpreter, also took the interpreter’s oath. The Complainant commenced employment with the Respondent on 4th September 2023 and finished on the 16th August 2024. He was paid €14 per hour. |
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
The complaint submitted is in relation to annual leave entitlement, specifically payment for annual leave hours due. The Complainant outlined how he would use an app to see his holiday entitlement. In July 2024 it showed that he had 135 hours due to him. He then took 5 days holidays at the end of July and following this he checked the app again which showed he had 97.52 hours left. He then gave his notice and during his notice period he checked the app again. It showed he had an entitlement of 4.23 hours, which he was paid for. He submitted this complaint to find out what happened to the other 93.29 hours that he understood he was due to receive. |
Summary of Respondent’s Case:
The Respondent explained that the reason the Complainant’s balance on the app went from 97.52 to 4.23 was because, before he gave his notice, the app predicts the full leave year entitlement. The app was showing what the Respondent was entitled to if he had continued in full time employment for the rest of the leave year. In other words, it was showing what his entitlement would have been had he remained in employment with the Respondent until the end of March 2025. As the Complainant ceased work in August 2024, then his annual leave was recalculated on that basis. However, in preparation for the hearing, the Respondent carried out a complete review of the Complainant’s leave entitlements. During this review, it was discovered that the Complainant had not received his annual leave entitlement which arose due to the overtime that he had worked while employed with the Respondent. It was outlined how the system had automatically calculated his leave based on his regular hours, but due to human error, the leave he would have been due as a result of overtime hours had not been entered. The Respondent forensically examined all hours worked by the Complainant during the course of his employment and identified 22.10 annual leave hours due. Evidence was given in relation to this review and how the calculation was arrived at. This payment has since been made to the Complainant at the rate of €14 per hour. |
Findings and Conclusions:
Section 19(1) of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 states as follows: “Subject to the First Schedule (which contains transitional provisions in respect of the leave years 1996 to 1998), an employee shall be entitled to paid annual leave (in this Act referred to as “annual leave”) equal to— (a) 4 working weeks in a leave year in which he or she works at least 1,365 hours (unless it is a leave year in which he or she changes employment, (b) one-third of a working week for each month in the leave year in which he or she works at least 117 hours, or (c) 8 per cent. of the hours he or she works in a leave year (but subject to a maximum of 4 working weeks): Provided that if more than one of the preceding paragraphs is applicable in the case concerned and the period of annual leave of the employee, determined in accordance with each of those paragraphs, is not identical, the annual leave to which the employee shall be entitled shall be equal to whichever of those periods is the greater.” I am satisfied based on the evidence of the Respondent that the Complainant has now received all that he is entitled to under the above section. |
Decision:
Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint in accordance with the relevant redress provisions under Schedule 6 of that Act.
I find that the complaint is not well founded for the reasons set out above. |
Dated: 06/02/2025
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Monica Brennan
Key Words:
Pay – Annual Leave payment |