Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Santiago  Grenon

Leeson Catering Limited

Representatives

  In person

 Did not attend

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-00065311-001

09/08/2024

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991

CA-00065311-002

09/08/2024

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 27 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997

CA-00065311-003

09/08/2024

The complainant was employed by the respondent as a chef from 7th February 2024 until his resignation on or about 28th July 2024. The complainant was paid €14 per hour. The complaints arise because of the alleged non-payment of wages and the non-payment of outstanding annual leave entitlements to the complainant when his employment ended.

The complainant represented himself at the adjudication hearing. The initial hearing took place on 12th December 2024. There was no appearance by or on behalf of the respondent. As there was some uncertainty in relation to whether the respondent was properly on notice of he hearing, the matter was subsequently rescheduled, and a hearing took place on 8th May 2025. The respondent did not attend the rescheduled hearing and was not represented.

The complainant addressed his complaints by way of verbal submission and supplied written documentation to substantiate his complaints. The complainant supplied bank statements, payslips and what’s app exchanges between himself and his manager relating to his outstanding entitlements and supplied documentation in relation to the efforts he made to contact the respondent’s payroll department in respect of the monies owed to him.

CA-00065311-001 and CA-00065311-002 – Payment of Wages complaints

The complainant is seeking the outstanding wages that he says were not paid to him. Specifically, the complainant stated that he did not receive payment for approximately 30 hours of work between 24th June 2024 and 7th July 2024. This amounts to a gross payment of €420.00. The complainant further states that for the week of 8th July 2024 to 14th July 2024 he received no wages at all which amounted to a gross payment of €910.00. The complainant stated that he was underpaid approximately 10 hours in the week from 15th July to 21st July 2024 which equates to a gross payment of €140 and in the final week of his employment 22nd July 2024 to 28th July 2024 he worked 27 hours and was not paid at all which amounted to a gross payment of €378.00.

CA-00065311-003 – Organisation of Working Time Act complaint

The complainant stated that he was not paid his outstanding annual leave entitlements when his employment ended on 28th July 2024. The complainant, based on his attendance between 7th February 2024 and 28th July 2024, calculated that he has an outstanding entitlement of 95 hours annual leave.

The respondent did not attend and was not represented.

The complainant presented as very honest and credible. He had been repeatedly left without payment from his employer and made significant efforts to address same and receive the payments that were due to him. The complainant resigned from his employment on or about 28th July 2024 and submitted his complaints to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on 9th August 2024.

CA-00065311-001 and CA- 00065311-002 – Payment of Wages complaints

The Applicable Law

Section 5(6) of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 provides as follows:

(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.

From the submissions and documentation submitted by the complainant, I accept that he was not paid wages that were properly payable to him as outlined above between 24th June 2024 and the 28thJuly 2024. I find that the total outstanding wages due to the complainant is €1,848.00.

CA-00065311-001 – Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997. -Annual Leave

The Applicable Law

Section 19 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 provides as follows:

19(1) 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.

Section 25 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 provides as follows:

25(1) An employer shall keep, at the premises or place where his or her employee works or, if the employee works at two or more premises or places, the premises or place from which the activities that the employee is employed to carry on are principally directed or controlled, such records, in such form, if any, as may be prescribed, as will show whether the provisions of this Act and, where applicable, the Activities of Doctors in Training Regulations are being complied with in relation to the employee and those records shall be retained by the employer for at least 3 years from the date of their making.

This complaint relates to the complainant’s outstanding annual leave entitlements. The complainant submits that at the end of his employment, he had an outstanding entitlement of 95 hours of annual leave, which due to his rate of pay of €14 per hour, amounts to €1,330. The complainant is also seeking compensation in relation to the infringement of his employment rights.

It is unfortunate that the respondent did not attend the adjudication hearing in respect of the complaints submitted. Section 25 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 requires the employer to retain records to establish that employees receive the appropriate entitlements under the legislation. The complainant’s calculation was that he was entitled to 8% of the total hours he worked from 7th February 2024 until 28th July 2024. This was calculated at 95 hours of outstanding annual leave. Based on the lack of participation from the respondent, the lack of records and on the complainants own calculations on the matter, I am satisfied that there is an entitlement in respect of outstanding annual leave. Accordingly, I find that the complaint is well founded.

CA-00065311-001 and CA-00065311-002 – Payment of Wages complaints

The substance of the complaint is addressed in CA-00065311-001. The complaint is well founded. The respondent is directed to pay the complainant €1,848.00 in respect of outstanding wages. Complaint application CA-00065311-002 is not well founded as it is a duplicate of the substantive complaints.

CA-00065311-003 – Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997.

The complaint is well founded. The respondent is directed to pay the complainant €1,330.00 in respect of outstanding annual leave entitlements and a further €500.00 in compensation for the infringements of the complainant’s employment rights.

Non-payment of wages, outstanding annual leave entitlements