ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00055015
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Parties | Ms Yewande Mosobalaje | Sandonato Ltd t/a Lennox Fish And Chips |
Representatives | Self-represented | No appearance |
Complaint:
Act | Complaint/Dispute Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 | CA-00067112-001 | 02/11/2024 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 20/01/2025
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Gaye Cunningham
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, and Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act 1991,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.
Background:
The complaint is that the Respondent failed to allow the Complainant work out her notice and effectively deprived her of 2 weeks’ pay.
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
The Complainant was employed by the Respondent from 4th September 2023. She obtained new employment and gave the Respondent Mr C two weeks’ verbal notice on 12th May 2024. This was accepted by Mr C. At 11.40pm on 13th May 2024 he texted her and told her there was no need to come in to work her notice. She was asked to return her uniform and was given no pay after 16th May 2024. She claims that she was entitled to work her notice and the Respondent had deprived her of wages for 2 weeks.
Summary of Respondent’s Case:
The Respondent did not attend the hearing or provide an explanation for his non attendance.
Findings and Conclusions:
The Complainant gave verbal notice of 2 weeks on 12th May 2024. The Respondent, having accepted the notice then proceeded to terminate her employment on 13th May 2024 effectively without notice. The issues I consider in this decision are the definition of wages encompassing minimum notice, the rights of employees to minimum notice and wages properly payable.
The applicable law
The definition of wages in the Payment of Wages Act 1991 is as follows:
“wages”, in relation to an employee, means any sums payable to the employee by the employer in connection with his employment, including—
- (a) any fee, bonus or commission, or any holiday, sick or maternity pay, or any other emolument, referable to his employment, whether payable under his contract of employment or otherwise, and
- (b) any sum payable to the employee upon the termination by the employer of his contract of employment without his having given to the employee the appropriate prior notice of the termination, being a sum paid in lieu of the giving of such notice.
The Complainant in this case gave two weeks notice to the Respondent and the Respondent terminated the employment without giving notice.
Section 4 of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973 provides for minimum periods of notice an employer is obliged to give in order to terminate the contract of employment of an employee who has been in continuous service for a period of thirteen weeks or more as follows:
(2) the minimum notice to be given by an employer to terminate the contract of employment of his employee shall be –
(a) if the employee has been in the continuous service of his employer for less than two years, one week…
Section 5 (6) of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 provides:
(6) Where— |
( a ) the total amount of any wages that are paid on any occasion by an employer to an employee is less than the total amount of wages that is properly payable by him to the employee on that occasion (after making any deductions therefrom that fall to be made and are in accordance with this Act), or |
( b ) none of the wages that are properly payable to an employee by an employer on any occasion (after making any such deductions as aforesaid) are paid to the employee, |
then, except in so far as the deficiency or non-payment is attributable to an error of computation, the amount of the deficiency or non-payment shall be treated as a deduction made by the employer from the wages of the employee on the occasion. |
In this instant case, I find that the Respondent withheld the sum of €450 being wages properly payable for the minimum period of notice of one week that the Respondent failed to provide to the Complainant. I find the complaint to be well founded and I require the Respondent to pay to the Complainant the net sum of €450.
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.
Section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 requires that I make a decision in relation to the complaint in relation to the redress provisions in that Act.
For the reasons cited I have decided that the complaint is well founded, and I require the Respondent to pay to the Complainant the net sum of €450.
Dated: 06th February 2025.
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Gaye Cunningham
Key Words:
Payment of wages, minimum notice, wages properly payable. |