Complainant

Respondent

Parties

Wiktor  Siwek

Quality Hospitality Ltd                                    trading as Cafe 31

Complainant

Respondent

Representatives

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Regulation 15 of the  European Communities (Organisation of Working Time) (Mobile Staff in Civil Aviation) Regulations 2006 - S.I. No. 507 of 2006

CA-00071421-001

08/05/2025

This hearing was conducted in person in the Workplace Relations Commission situate in Lansdowne Road, Dublin. In line with the Supreme Court decision in the constitutional case of Zalewski -v- An Adjudication Officer and the Workplace Relations Commission and Ireland and the Attorney General [2021] IESC 24 (delivered on the 6th of April 2021) the hearing was conducted in recognition of the fact that the proceedings constitute the administration of Justice. It was therefore open to members of the public to attend this hearing.

The specific details of the complaint are outlined in the Workplace Relations Complaint Form which was received by the WRC on the 8th of May 2025. In general terms, I will therefore be looking at issues that have arisen in the six-month period directly preceding this date. The cognisable period is therefore the 9th of November 2024 through to the 8th of May 2025.

The Complainant was not represented and attended at the appointed hour and place to make his case.

The Complainant had set out a narrative in his complaint form which had nothing at all to do with an employment in the aviation industry. The complaint form is dated May of 2025

The Complainant had been engaged as a Manager in a café for upwards of 8 years. The Café ceased trading in December of 2023. The Complainant was paid whatever redundancy was due to him. The Complainant was not, he says, paid for a notice period and was not paid for his annual leave accruing at that time. The Complainant also asserted he was owed for his final weeks of wages. He made his own case. The complaints raised might more properly have been brought under the Payment of Wages Act or the Minium Notice Act or the Organisation of working Time Act. Of course,as part of this process, and in the interests of fairness, I reserved my right to amend the Workplace Complaint Form so as to include complaints (under other employment statutes) which appeared to have been articulated in the Statement/narrative, but which had not been specifically particularised by this (unrepresented) Complainant.

Where it also became necessary, I explained how the Adjudication process operated with particular emphasis on the question of timing. In particular I noted that the Workplace Relations Act specifies at Section 41 (6) that (subject to s.s.8) an Adjudication Officer shall not entertain a complaint referred to said Adjudication Officer after the expiration of the period of six months beginning on the date of the contravention to which the Complaint relates.

I explained that whilst I can extend time in limited circumstances pursuant to Section 41 (8) which specifies that the Adjudication Officer may entertain a Complaint or dispute to which section 41 applies after the expiration of the six month period referred to in ss. (6) and (7) – though not later than a further six months after the initial expiration as the case may be - if the Adjudication Officer is satisfied that the failure to present the complaint or refer the dispute within that period was due to reasonable cause.

However, I am Statutorily curtailed from hearing a matter which has been brought to the WRC more than eighteen months after the alleged Statutory contraventions have occurred.

The complaints brought by the Complainant herein have been brought out of time. In the circumstances there seemed little point in amending the complaint form to include complaints all of which are out of time ab initio.

The Respondent did not attend. I am satisfied that the Respondent was notified of the date, time and venue for this hearing by a letter sent from the WRC - dated the 9th of December 2025 and posted to the registered office of the Respondent company.

Regrettably the Complainant brought his issues to the attention of the WRC well beyond the time allocated by Statute. Ordinarily such complaints should be lodged within six months of the occurrence of the complaint. The Complainant waited over eighteen months.

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Regulation 15 of the European Communities (Organisation of Working Time) (Mobile Staff in Civil Aviation) Regulations 2006 - S.I. No. 507 of 2006

CA-00071421-001 – The complaint herein fails in circumstances where it was brought out of time. I do not have the Statutory jurisdiction to deal with same.