Vol. 536 No. 3
128 Ms Shortall asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the sanctions which are open to her Department in cases where outstanding overtime and holiday pay is not paid by a company which ceases operation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14311/01]
There are no sanctions open under the insolvency payments scheme or the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Acts, 1984 to 1991, in regard to the non-payment of wages, holiday pay or overtime owed to employees when a company merely ceases to trade. To come within the provisions of those Acts and scheme, under which it is possible for eligible employees to claim certain amounts of outstanding pay-related entitlements of the type mentioned – wages, overtime, holiday pay, the company would have to be in liquidation or receivership or be covered by any of the other proceedings which define insolvency for the purposes of the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Acts, 1984 to 1991 and the scheme.
In the event of the provisions of the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Acts, 1984 to 1991, not applying, it would be open to individual employees to pursue entitlements under the terms of the Payment of Wages Act, 1991, and the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997. The Payment of Wages Act, 1991, provides a right of complaint to a rights commissioner for any employee who has had an unlawful deduction made from wages and this includes non-payment of wages. A complaint must be presented to a rights commissioner within six months of the non-payment, which gave rise to the complaint. Under section 19 of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997, an employee is entitled to annual leave calculated as follows: four working weeks in a leave year in which he or she works at least 1,365 hours – unless it is a leave year in which he or she changes employment; or one-third of a working week for each month in the leave year in which he or she works 117 hours; or 8% of the hours he or she works in a leave year, subject to a maximum of 4 working weeks. If an employer refuses to grant an employee his/her annual leave entitlement the employee may refer a complaint to a rights commissioner for redress.
Full details of the information supplied may be obtained by contacting the employment rights information unit of my Department at (01) 631 3131 or on Lo-call 1890 220222 where staff will be happy to assist. A full range of information leaflets is also available on request or by logging into my Department's website at www.entemp.ie. The rights commissioner service of the Labour Relations Commission may also be contacted at Tom Johnson House, Haddington Road, Dublin 4 – Telephone: (01) 6609662.
