Vol. 536 No. 5
121 Ms Shortall asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the action her Department intends to take against a company (details supplied) whose staff claim that it closed business without properly remunerating employees in respect of commission, bonuses, holiday and overtime pay; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14613/01]
The labour inspectorate of my Department is currently investigating the circumstances of the closure of this company within the terms of the Protection of Employment Act, 1977 and whether appropriate criminal proceedings should be considered by me.
Where it is alleged that an employer has contravened sections 9 and/or 10 of the 1977 Act, as amended by the European Communities (Protection of Employment) Regulations, 2000 – in relation to information and consultation of employees – the employees or a trade union, staff association or an excepted body, may present a complaint to a rights commissioner on behalf of the employees. The rights commissioner is empowered to investigate the complaint and to issue a decision on the matter.
As the company concerned is not in liquidation, receivership or subject to any of the proceedings or actions which define insolvency for the purpose of the Protection of Employees (Employers' Insolvency) Acts, 1984 to 1991, that scheme does not apply.
However, it is also 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 the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997, section 19, 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 but subject to a maximum of four working weeks.
If an employer refuses to grant an employee his or her annual leave entitlement the employee may refer a complaint to a rights commissioner for redress.
