ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00008621
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Anonymised Parties | An account executive | A shipping and logistics company |
Complaint(s):
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-00011614-001 | 29/05/2017 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 14/12/2017
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Catherine Byrne
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015, this complaint has been assigned to me by the Director General. I conducted a hearing on December 14th 2017 and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present evidence relevant to the complaint.
The Complainant attended alone and without representation. For the Respondent, in addition to their IBEC representative, the HR Manager and a member of the HR Department attended.
Background:
The complainant was an account executive and having been employed for almost 18 years, he resigned on March 3rd 2017 and gave four weeks’ notice of his intention to leave. Prior to handing in his notice he had applied for and been approved for six days’ annual leave from March 10th – 20th. His notice was due to expire on April 3rd, which was his last day of employment. Rather than work out his notice, the respondent put the complainant on garden leave. The complainant said that he told his manager that he didn’t need to take his holidays and he is claiming that he is owed six days’ pay. |
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
When he gave his employer four weeks’ notice to take up a new job, the complainant said that he decided that he would not take the holidays that he had been approved for. At the hearing, he said that he informed his manager of his change of plans. He said that he didn’t confirm this in writing. When he was asked what the process was for booking leave, he said that he sent a e mail to his manager to ask for approval to take holidays. He said that he didn’t send a mail to confirm that he would not take the holidays. |
Summary of Respondent’s Case:
The respondent’s position is that the complainant requested and was approved for six days’ annual leave between March 10th and 20th. They were not informed that he was not taking the leave and their position is that he was approved for holidays and was on holidays during this time. Due to the fact that the complainant was taking a job with a competitor, he was not required to work out his notice and he was placed on “garden leave” for the four weeks. The effect of this is that he was not required to come to work, but he remained an employee until his last day of employment, April 3rd, 2017. Evidence was produced at the hearing which showed that, at the end of March, the complainant received two days’ pay in respect of holidays not taken. This reflected his outstanding entitlement to annual leave which he had not had the opportunity to take before he left the company. |
Findings and Conclusions:
Having considered this complaint and the evidence presented at the hearing, I find that the complainant booked his holidays and then resigned, giving his employer four weeks’ notice of his intention to leave. If he had been working out his notice, six days during this four-week period would have coincided with him being on holidays. Rather than working out his notice, he was placed on “garden leave.” The concept of garden leave has no meaning in law and his legal status between March 3rd and April 3rd 2017 was that he was an employee who had given notice of termination. For six days during this period of four weeks, he was on approved holidays. |
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 have found that the complainant received in full his entitlement to holidays up to the date of his termination and this complaint under the Payment of Wages Act fails. |
Dated: 6.4.18
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Catherine Byrne
Key Words:
Garden leave, annual leave, notice |