Her employer agreed that she was owed the holiday pay but denied any obligation to pay the two weeks wages.
The employee was paid on a casual basis but it was clear that holiday pay was not paid as part of her fortnightly earnings. It was apparent that the employer had a good wage and time record system and that she regularly produced a pay slip which showed amounts of accrued annual leave.
The employee, Ms W, gave evidence at the investigative meeting that she had spent the vast majority of the year, after resigning in April, trying to get her employer to pay the holiday pay which she had agreed was owing. She claimed to have telephoned the employer over ten times, sent e-mails and even spoken to her face to face, but all without success.
During the lead up to the hearing during a preliminary meeting the employer freely admitted owing the holiday pay. With that admission in mind the adjudicator thought a direction that the parties meet and decide the matter would be sufficient; alas not.
The money had been owing for over 12 months and the employer constantly avoided the payment of the agreed amount. The adjudicator commented that this was not acceptable and not an example of good faith behaviour by the employer.
In the end the investigative meeting was held, minus the employer who failed to show up, or be represented.
The adjudicator was left with no alternative but to hear the evidence of Ms W and promptly awarded her the unpaid holiday pay of $400.00 + reimbursement of the $70.00 filing fee + $200.00 as a contribution to her costs, including interest. This is noteworthy in the fact that Ms W was not legally represented and thus had not, apparently, incurred any direct costs.
Employers need to be mindful of meeting their agreed liabilities to staff and also that if an investigative meeting is held without them it is highly likely that what an ex-employee says at that meeting will be taken as gospel and awards made as a consequence of unrefuted evidence.
A reminder to employers and employees that the government is about to embark on a review of the personal grievance procedures. The Employment Relations Authority receives 2,500 applications a year, with 1,000 going to a first stage investigative meeting. This doesn’t include all of those that are dealt with in mediation, which will number many more.
If anyone is interested in making comment on how well or how badly they feel the system is; whether it is fair or not, then please feel free to contact our office and we can forward the comments on. Comments by phone, fax, e-mail or good old slow post are all very welcome.
This is a very real opportunity for people to contribute to a review of what can be a very contentious area of law so make your views count.
