ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00013519
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Anonymised Parties | A General Labourer | A Gutter Company |
Complaint:
Act | Complaint Reference No. | Date of Receipt |
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 | CA-00017840-001 | 09/03/2018 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 22/05/2018
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Patsy Doyle
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act, 2015 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:
This is a claim for unpaid wages. The Respondent did not defend the case . |
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
The Complainant applied for labouring work via a Jobs website. He was given an offer by text of an immediate start on 19 February, 2018 and worked for three days. He understood that he was to receive €13 per hour in respect of the 24 hours he worked. He understood that paperwork was to follow. He submitted that he worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the week of February 19, 2018. He was then informed that there was no more work for him. He sought payment for the work completed but the Respondent shut down communication and payment was denied. The Respondent told him that “You don’t work for me “. The Complainant did not receive an explanation for this statement. The Complainant exhibited photos taken of him at work on a roof of a house. He also gave evidence that he had been engaged in handing out leaflets in a distribution exercise. He recalled that the logo on the Van used for work had the Company Logo on it. The Complainant submitted that he was owed €312 in unpaid wages. |
Summary of Respondent’s Case:
There was no appearance by or on behalf of the Respondent. There was no response to the claim.
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Findings and Conclusions:
I have considered the case outlined by the complainant who confirmed that he had not been issued with any paperwork to link him with the Respondent. He gave uncontroverted evidence of having completed 3 full day’s work for which he had not received payment and this had placed him in a hardship situation, given that he was not an Irish National. Section 5(1) of the Payment of Wages Act ,1991 prohibits deductions in wages save on stated grounds. I did not hear the circumstances surrounding the non-payment of wages from the Respondent. I allowed a delay in the start of the hearing to facilitate a late attendance but no attendance followed. I was left to consider the case from the complainant’s perspective. I did not have any paperwork linking the complainant to the respondent. Yet, he gave clear evidence of having worked for three days unpaid. He gave a clear account of the efforts he made to secure payment which were unsuccessful. Section 5(6)(b) of the Act applied in the situation described where wages remain unpaid. 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.
Based on the uncontested evidence of the complainant, I find that his claim for unpaid wages is well founded. |
Decision:Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 requires that I decide 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 me to decide in relation to the complaint. I have found that the Respondent breached Section 5 of the Payment of Wages Act by non-payment of wages to the complainant. I order the Respondent to pay the complainant €312 in unpaid wages less statutory deductions, if any.
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Dated: 06/09/2018
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Patsy Doyle
Key Words:
Non-Payment of Wages |