Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Julieanne  Lambert

Avista Clg

Representatives

  Self Represented

Peter D Gilfedder  IBEC

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

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

CA-00069726-001

04/03/2025

The Complainant was employed as an Accounting and Banking Assistant from September 18th 2023 to November 30th 2014 when she left the employment for a new role. The Complainant claimed that her contract of employment, through a company policy, entitled her to probationary reviews after 3, 6 and 9 months and that these were either not completed on time or not at all and this was a breach of the Act. The Respondents position was that the conducting of probationary reviews was not covered by the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994 and therefore no breach of the Act has occurred.

The Complainant was employed as an Accounting and Banking Assistant from September 18th 2023 to November 30th 2014.

Her contract of employment entitled her to probation reviews after 3, 6 and 9 months and these were not conducted on time or at all and she was put under pressure as a result.

The Complainant enjoyed her work and while she did not expect the reviews to be conducted exactly on the day due she did expect them to be completed within some reasonable time when due.

The Complainant passed her 9 month final review on July 27th 2024 and this was overdue by nearly a month. She had passed her probation and was permanent.

The Complainant alleges that she was not notified in writing of a change to her terms of employment and has made a claim under Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994. In the narrative of her complaint form, she mentions that her terms of employment state that she was to undergo a nine-month probation period with a probation review period to take every three months to monitor performance. She references timeframes of December 2023, March 2024, and May 2024 as to when her probation review meetings should have been completed and notes that those timeframes were not adhered to. The Complainant’s argument centres on this piece.

The Respondent notes that the Complainant submitted her complaint to the WRC on the 4th of March 2025. Therefore, the cognisable period is from the 5th of September 2024 to the 4th of March 2025. The Respondent would respectfully submit that the Complainant has not identified as to how her terms of employments were changed without notice during this period.

Section 5 of the Act provides that: (1) Subject to subsection (2), whenever a change is made or occurs in any of the particulars of the statement furnished by an employer under section 3, 4 or 6, the employer shall notify the employee in writing of the nature and date of the change as soon as may be thereafter, but not later than— (a) 1 month after the change takes effect, or (b) where the change is consequent on the employee being required to work outside the State for a period of more than 1 month, the time of the employee’s departure.

The Respondent argues that it did not change the Complainant’s terms and conditions of employment at any point during her tenure. Furthermore, the Complainant has not stipulated in her WRC complaint form as to what exact term of employment has been altered without notice provided to her, other than probation review dates and passing her probation later than scheduled. Under the Act, such terms of employment are listed under Section 3 (1) which are as follows: “(a) the full names of the employer and the employee, (b) the address of the employer in the State or, where appropriate, the address of the principal place of the relevant business of the employer in the State or the registered office (within the meaning of the Companies Act, 1963), (c) the place of work or, where there is no fixed or main place of work, a statement specifying that the employee is required or permitted to work at various places, (d) the title of the job or nature of the work for which the employee is employed, (e) the date of commencement of the employee's contract of employment, 9 (f) in the case of a temporary contract of employment, the expected duration thereof or, if the contract of employment is for a fixed term, the date on which the contract expires, (g) the rate or method of calculation of the employee's remuneration, (h) the length of the intervals between the times at which remuneration is paid, whether a week, a month or any other interval, (i) any terms or conditions relating to hours of work (including overtime), (j) any terms or conditions relating to paid leave (other than paid sick leave), (k) any terms or conditions relating to— (i) incapacity for work due to sickness or injury and paid sick leave, and (ii) pensions and pension schemes, (l) the period of notice which the employee is required to give and entitled to receive (whether by or under statute or under the terms of the employee's contract of employment) to determine the employee's contract of employment or, where this cannot be indicated when the information is given, the method for determining such periods of notice, (m) a reference to any collective agreements which directly affect the terms and conditions of the employee's employment including, where the employer is not a party to such agreements, particulars of the bodies or institutions by whom they were made.”

The Respondent argued that the Complainant must establish what term of employment the Respondent purportedly changed without giving her notice for this claim to be heard. It relied on the decision of the Labour Court in CH Marine Limited T/A Bantry Bay Canoes and Ciarán O’Connor (TED1817), where it found that because the Complainant in the instant case could not identify any specific breaches of the Act, the Court determined that his complaint did not fall within the scope of the Act. In Four Seasons Hotel Ltd and Iryna Bulychova (TED1717) , the Court noted that there was no change to the Complainant’s conditions of employment; no change to the title of her job or to the nature of the work carried out by her. It determined that there was no breach of Section 5 of the Act and the complaint failed.

There was no breach of contract as both parties continued to operate within its scope. While the Respondent regrets the delays in closing out the probation process due to operational difficulties and shortness of staff which led to Mr Murray focusing his efforts on running the department, the Complainant had demonstrated competence and satisfaction during the process which ultimately led to her passing probation. Indeed, the probation policy clearly states that “upon completion of the probation period employees must achieve performance ‘Rating 3 ‘meets expectations ‘or above in all job description requirements and competencies in order to successfully complete the Probation Period. The Complainant demonstrated this with achieving ratings of three and four in all competency areas. Furthermore, there were no concerns raised by Mr Murray that would lead to a conclusion that the Complainant would fail probation.

The law;

3.—(1) An employer shall, not later than 2 months after the commencement of an employee's employment with the employer, give or cause to be given to the employee a statement in writing containing the following particulars of the terms of the employee's employment, that is to say—

(a) the full names of the employer and the employee,

(b) the address of the employer in the State or, where appropriate, the address of the principal place of the relevant business of the employer in the State or the registered office (within the meaning of the Companies Act, 1963 ),

(c) the place of work or, where there is no fixed or main place of work, a statement specifying that the employee is required or permitted to work at various places,

(d) the title of the job or nature of the work for which the employee is employed,

(e) the date of commencement of the employee's contract of employment,

(f) in the case of a temporary contract of employment, the expected duration thereof or, if the contract of employment is for a fixed term, the date on which the contract expires,

(g) the rate or method of calculation of the employee's remuneration,

(h) the length of the intervals between the times at which remuneration is paid, whether a week, a month or any other interval,

(i) any terms or conditions relating to hours of work (including overtime),

(j) any terms or conditions relating to paid leave (other than paid sick leave),

(k) any terms or conditions relating to—

(i) incapacity for work due to sickness or injury and paid sick leave, and

(ii) pensions and pension schemes,

(l) the period of notice which the employee is required to give and entitled to receive (whether by or under statute or under the terms of the employee's contract of employment) to determine the employee's contract of employment or, where this cannot be indicated when the information is given, the method for determining such periods of notice,

(m) a reference to any collective agreements which directly affect the terms and conditions of the employee's employment including, where the employer is not a party to such agreements, particulars of the bodies or institutions by whom they were made.

Notification of changes.

5.—(1) Subject to subsection (2), whenever a change is made or occurs in any of the particulars of the statement furnished by an employer under section 3 , 4 or 6 , the employer shall notify the employee in writing of the nature and date of the change as soon as may be thereafter, but not later than—

(a) 1 month after the change takes effect, or

(b) where the change is consequent on the employee being required to work outside the State for a period of more than 1 month, the time of the employee's departure.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply in relation to a change occurring in provisions of statutes or instruments made under statute or of any other laws or of any administrative provisions or collective agreements referred to in the statement given under section 3 or 4 .

The complaint related to the Complainant claiming there was change to the agreed contracted time to conduct her 3, 6 and 9 month reviews and she was not notified of these changes as per clause 5. I do not intend to go into two preliminary issues of whether the complaint is within time or whether a contractual entitlement existed to the probation reviews being completed as the fundamental issue of the completion of probation reviews is not one of the terms of employment included in clause 3 of the Act above and therefore the issue of notification of a change under clause 5 to a probation review does not apply under the Act.

I find the complaint to be misconceived as it is not covered by the Act and therefore is not well founded.

Terms and conditions