Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Maria  Fitzpatrick

Elaine T Clarke And Co Limited Clarke's Careplus Pharmacy

Representatives

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-00067952-001

09/12/2024

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

CA-00067952-002

09/12/2024

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 7 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994

CA-00067952-004

09/12/2024

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 7 of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994.

CA-00067952-005

09/12/2024

The Complainant worked for the Respondent for a period of approximately 8 weeks.

She has raised complaints related the late payment of her wages, accrued annual leave and to the Respondent’s failure to provide her with a written statement of particulars of employment.  

The Complainant was supposed to be paid weekly. In the six pay days that arose between her employment starting and her resignation she was paid late for five of them.

At the time of referral of this complaint she was still owed her final two week’s wages, one of which was nine days overdue and the other was three days overdue. She was paid soon after having made these complaints.

The Complainant was paid her accrued annual leave in January 2025.

The Complainant was not given any statement outlining the particulars of her employment.

The Respondent had sought a postponement and renewed that application in the hearing through their HR representative Ms Emma O’Keefe.

Ms O’Keefe was able to provide general information relevant to the claim which was undisputed by the Complainant.

She accepts there were delays to the Complainant’s pay. This was in part down to the Complainant being paid weekly which was unusual and also to the death of someone associated with the business who was a key bank account administrator.

There was a delay in paying the Complainants accrued holiday pay resulting from a delay in calculating the entitlement.

There was a failure to provide the Complainant a written statement of particulars of employment as required by the act and the Respondent apologises for this.

Payment of Wages Act CA-00067952-001

Section 5(6) of the Act provides that:

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.

I think a reasonable interpretation of this clause based on the facts available to me would conclude that a short period of delayed payments which were due to administrative errors and account access issues resulting from a person’s death would not be deductions for the purposed of the act.

Organisation of Working Time Act CA-00067952-002

The Complainant had accrued around 2.5 days annual leave which was paid to her about 6 weeks after her resignation.  While this payment should have been made sooner, having regard to all the circumstances I am of the view that the Complainant was paid her leave on cessation and no breach of the act arises.

Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994. CA-00067952-004 and CA-00067952-005

The Complainant has submitted two separate complaints related to section 3 of this act. One related to the Respondent’s failure to provide a full written statement of particulars of her employment within one month of her commencing in the role (S3.1) and another for a failure to provide a statement of core particulars within 5 days of commencement (S3.1A).

This is accepted by the Respondent.

Section 7.2 of the act provides that an Adjudication Officer can order the employer to pay to the employee compensation of such amount (if any) as the adjudication officer considers just and equitable having regard to all of the circumstances, but not exceeding 4 weeks’ remuneration in respect of the employee’s employment calculated in accordance with regulations under section 17 of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.

These complaints do technically concern two separate contraventions of Section 3 of the act and as such I have jurisdiction to award up to 4 weeks pay for each.  However, they do obviously overlap and concern a very short period of employment I am of the view that a combined total award of €300 is just and equitable in all the circumstances.

CA-00067952-001

I find the complaint not well founded.

CA-00067952-002

I find the complaint not well founded.

CA-00067952-004

I find the complaint well founded and direct the Respondent to pay the Complainant €150 in compensation.

CA-00067952-005

I find the complaint well founded and direct the Respondent to pay the Complainant €150 in compensation.