Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

A Worker

An Employer

Representatives

Act

Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act

IR - SC - 00003528

09/12/2024

The Worker worked for the Employer pharmacy from the 7th of October until the 27th of November 2024 when she resigned.

She has alleged that this resignation was forced by the Employer’s behaviour towards her and that the owner of the business was irritable, snappy and spoke down to her. She also had a number of issues in receiving her weekly pay on Friday of each week as agreed and on a number of occasions received it on the following Monday or Tuesday. On one occasion she was paid bi-weekly rather than weekly.

The Worker submits that the business owner created an uncomfortable, tense and stressful working environment and that she was spoken down to and treated with irritation. She was not given guidance and when she asked questions she was snapped at or referred to a colleague. 

The Employer was unresponsive to her resignation and took a couple of weeks to pay her outstanding wages which caused stress and required her to chase her.

She would not have made this claim if there had a been an apology. She is bringing the complaint to demonstrate to the business owner that they can’t treat people like this.

The Worker notes that she did not go through a grievance procedure to exhaust other avenues before leaving she was not given a grievance procedure to follow.

The Employer sought a postponement and when this was denied they asked their HR and payroll provider to attend instead and renew the application due to a medical concern.

They submitted there were payroll issues related both to the Worker’s request to be paid weekly and with administrative issues caused by a bereavement.

In conducting my investigation, I have taken into account all relevant submissions presented to me by the parties. My role is now to make recommendations as to the merits of the trade dispute referred to me where I believe they will assist in resolving that trade dispute.

The Employment relationship lasted only 8 weeks and then ceased by way of the Worker’s resignation. There are normally no pertinent recommendations I can make in the circumstances where such a brief employment relationship has ended, and the parties have moved on.

I understand the Worker was seriously affected by those few weeks and is seeking a degree of recognition as to how this period impacted her. This is not necessarily unreasonable, but it is not my role.

More specifically the Worker has alleged she was constructively dismissed. This of course is something I should be concerned with as is it obviously falls within the definition of trade dispute as defined by the 1946 Act.

However, the alleged actions of the Employer, over a short period of time, fall far short of the standard of unreasonable behaviour required to establish constructive dismissal.