ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION
Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00056796
Parties:
| Complainant | Respondent |
Parties | Leticia Pelizzon | Farrier & Draper Limited |
Representatives | Self-represented | Did not attend the hearing |
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-00069110-001 | 07/02/2025 |
Date of Adjudication Hearing: 23/05/2025
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Catherine Byrne
Procedure:
In accordance with Section 41 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015, this complaint was assigned to me by the Director General. I conducted a hearing on May 23rd 2025, at which I made enquiries and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard and to present evidence relevant to the complaints. The complainant, Ms Letitia Pelizzon attended the hearing alone and represented herself. No one attended for the respondent, Farrier and Draper Limited, and they were not represented. Having checked the case file, I am satisfied that, on May 2nd 2025, they were properly notified of the date and time of the hearing. In the absence of any evidence submitted by the respondent, I have reached the conclusions set out below based on the evidence of Ms Pelizzon.
For the remainder of this document, I will refer to Ms Pelizzon as “the complainant” and to Farrier & Draper Limited as “the respondent.”
Summary of Complainant’s Case:
The complainant commenced working with the respondent in their restaurant in South William Street on September 17th 2024. She was employed as a waitress working between 20 and 30 hours per week. Her hourly pay was €13.50 and she was paid weekly. Around January 5th 2025, the complainant said that she was rostered to work in the evening. That morning, she was informed by another member of staff that the restaurant had closed. Shortly after the restaurant closed, the complainant said that she received two payslips, one for week 2 2025 and the second for week 3. The first payslip indicates that she has been paid €335.08 for 24.5 hours’ work (plus a small tax rebate) and the second indicates that she has been paid €218.40 in holiday pay. These payments have not been transferred to the complainant’s bank account. At the hearing, the complainant said that she has repeatedly contacted the management and the company’s head office to enquire about her wages, but the response she received was that nothing could be done. On February 7th 2025, she submitted this complaint to the WRC. |
Findings and Conclusions:
Section 5(6) of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 provides that, to ground a complaint under the Act, wages must be properly payable: (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. The complainant’s evidence has not been rebutted and I find therefore that, in breach of section 5 of the Payment of Wages Act, wages equivalent to €553.48 which were properly payable to her have not been paid. As the complainant was issued with payslips indicating that wages were transferred to her bank account, and, as the money has not been transferred, the issuing of these payslips is a deceit. |
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 decide that this complaint is well founded. In accordance with section 6 of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 (as amended), I direct the respondent to pay the complainant compensation of €553.48 comprising wages not paid up to January 5th 2025 and the outstanding holiday pay due at the termination of her employment. |
Dated: 29th May 2025.
Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Catherine Byrne
Key Words:
Wages not paid |