Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

A Legal Secretary/Practice Manager

A Firm of Solicitors

Representatives

Siobhan McCormack North Connacht and Ulster Citizens Information Centre

 No appearance

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-00066534-001

08/10/2024

This is an uncontested complaint brought under the Redundancy payments Acts.

Application under Section 41 (13) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015

An application to conduct the Adjudication hearing other than in public was made on behalf of the Complainant under section 41 (13) of the Workplace Relations Act 2015.

The Complainant contends that special circumstances prevail to allow the Adjudication proceed, in private. The alleged special circumstances relate to the health of the Respondent who was unable to attend the Adjudication hearing and with whom the Complainant had a long and good working relationship. The Complainant requested that the Respondent’s privacy be protected in any decision that is published by the WRC.

Evidence of Complainant

The evidence of the Complainant under affirmation was as follows:

She commenced work as a legal secretary with another firm of solicitors on 1 January 1985.

Her employment was transferred to the Respondent in January 2000 when the practice was taken over by the Respondent.

There was no break in her employment at this time and under section 20 of the Redundancy Payments Acts the Complainant claims that it was agreed with the Respondent that her previous contract with the other solicitor would be and was renewed by the Respondent on the same terms and conditions, as if there had not been a change of employer. 

She continued working as a legal secretary for the Respondent until the Complainant went on sick leave on 26 April 2022. She remained on sick leave until the Respondent legal practice was closed by the Law Society on 10 May 2024.

She accepts that a portion of her sick leave is non-reckonable for the purpose of the RPA, bar the first 26 weeks of her sick leave. She claims therefore that from 26 April 2022 until 25 October 2022 is reckonable service but the period from 26 October 2022 – 10 May 2024 is not reckonable service.

Apart from the aforesaid her work was continuous with no breaks.

She enjoyed working with the Respondent.

Her normal gross weekly pay at the time of her redundancy was €630.00 for 35 hours per week.

There was no appearance on behalf of the Respondent at the Adjudication hearing. The Respondent confirmed by way of letter that she did not intend to contest the Redundancy complaint brought on behalf of the Complainant.

Special Circumstances

I am satisfied that special circumstances exist for the published decision to not identify the parties. This redundancy situation arose in part due to the ill health of the Respondent who was unable to attend the hearing. The Complainant believed that if the Respondent’s identity was published that this could undermine her recovery and the Complainant felt protective of the Respondent in this respect. Having considered this application I accept that the application by the Complainant is to protect the privacy of her former employer and I am satisfied that this constitutes special circumstances which allows me to determine that the parties’ identities should not be disclosed in the published decision.

Redundancy Complaint Findings

I am satisfied, applying section 20 of RPA, that the Complainant’s service was not broken in 1999/2000 when the Respondent renewed the Complainant’s previous contract with another firm of solicitors on the same terms and conditions as she enjoyed before.  

Based on the uncontested evidence of the Complainant, which was given under affirmation, I am satisfied that a redundancy situation existed and that as of the date of the Adjudication hearing that she has not been paid a redundancy payment.

I find that the Complainant is entitled to a redundancy payment based on having had insurable employment (under the Social Welfare Acts) for the duration of her employment and based on the following facts:

Commencement date: 1 January 1985

End of Employment: 10 May 2024

Gross weekly pay: € 630 (albeit subject to the statutory pay cap of €600 per week)

Applying Schedule 3 section 8 of the RPA I am satisfied that the Complainant was absent from work due to illness which was not an occupational accident or disease within the meaning of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 1993, and during which she served sick certificates on her employer from 26 April 2022 until 10 May 2024. I find that the first 26 weeks of this sick period is reckonable (from 26 April 2022 – 25 October 2022) but the period in excess of 26 weeks, from 25 October 2022 until 10 May 2024, is not reckonable for the purpose of redundancy calculation.

I note that the Respondent is not in a financial position to be able to discharge the Redundancy payment to the Complainant.

The Complaint is well founded, and the Complainant is entitled to a Redundancy Payment based on the above findings.

Redundancy - uncontested