The company concerned is registered on the records of the Companies Registration Office but despite every effort on the part of the staff of my Department they have been unable to make contact with the company in recent days.
I propose to list in a general way the payments that the employees may be entitled to from the information supplied in the Deputy's question. In regard to specific problems, the best advice I can give is for the employees to contact their local social welfare office and the information unit of my Department.
In the case of employer insolvency, in order for employees to claim payment of outstanding wages, holiday pay, minimum notice, etc, under the insolvency payments scheme, their employer, if it is a limited liability company, must be in liquidation or receivership.
In the case of redundancy, when an employer ceases trading the employees are entitled to a statutory redundancy payment if they have at least two years service with the company. If they consider that they may qualify for such a payment they should contact the redundancy payments section of my Department for details of the application forms, etc.
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. A decision of the rights commissioner or a determination of the employment appeals tribunal under the Payment of Wages Act, 1991, may specify a date before which the decision or determination must be carried out. If no date is specified, the decision or determination must be carried out within six weeks.
If a decision of a rights commissioner is not appealed or carried out by the due date by the party concerned, the Payment of Wages Act, 1991, provides that the decision may be enforced as if it were an order of the Circuit Court made in civil proceedings by the judge of the Circuit Court where the person, in whose favour the rights commissioner made the decision, resides. Therefore, employees with favourable decisions should contact their local Circuit Court office regarding the enforcement of their decisions. However, it is worth noting that before employees embark on such a course of action they should be aware as to whether the employer – company or individual – has assets against which a judgment might be enforced.
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, but subject to a maximum of four working weeks.
If an employer refuses to give employees their statutory notice or redundancy entitlements under the Act, payment in lieu of such notice or grant an employee his or her annual leave entitlement the employee may refer a complaint to a rights commissioner for redress. However, it is worth repeating that before employees embark on such a course of action they should be aware as to whether the employer – company or individual – has assets against which a judgment might be enforced though in the case of awards of the employment appeals tribunal under the Redundancy Payments Acts, payment may be sought from the social insurance fund even if the employer has ceased trading and not been formally declared insolvent.
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 201615 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.
