Business

Jack & Jones ordered to stop blanket practice of denying premium Sunday pay

Former employee awarded more than €10,000 for ‘well-founded’ complaint

Jack & Jones was ordered to pay the complainant €10,725. File photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins

Stephen Bourke
Sat Apr 22 2023 - 05:00

Well-known menswear shop Jack & Jones has been ordered to take steps to ensure all of its staff are paid extra for Sunday work, after the clothing retailer admitted it did not pay a premium to workers for that day.

In a decision published on Friday, Jack & Jones, which has about 40 full-time equivalent staff in Ireland, was ordered to pay €10,725 — representing six months’ wages — to a worker who was “let go” five weeks after making a working hours claim.

The tribunal was ruling on statutory complaints by Jake Quinn, under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 against J & J Retail Limited, trading as Jack & Jones, who had alleged he got no premium pay for 14 Sundays between April and July 2022.

Mr Quinn, who said he earned €11 per hour for a 37½-hour week, further alleged that he did not receive bank holiday entitlements for four dates in March, April and May that year.

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Giving evidence on his complaint Mr Quinn said he was “let go” on July 28th, 2022, 4½ months after he was hired.

He had submitted the working hours’ complaints to the Workplace Relations Commission on June 19th, 2022, about 5½ weeks before his employment ended. His evidence was not contested by the retailer.

William O’Reilly of RVW O’Reilly, appearing for Jack & Jones, said the company “does not pay Sunday premia”.

“The complainant was paid a standard rate of payment and under his contract, he was required to be flexible in his hours of attendance,” Mr O’Reilly said.

‘Silent’ contract

Mr O’Reilly added that the complainant was paid for 33.78 hours in holiday entitlements, which Mr Quinn agreed at the hearing had included “a portion” for holiday pay.

Adjudicating officer Conor Stokes noted in his decision that the company’s representative accepted Mr Quinn “worked Sunday hours and that it does not pay any form of Sunday premium”.

“It also accepted that the contract is silent on this issue,” he added, and declared Mr Quinn’s complaint to be “well founded”.

Noting that the working time legislation gave him jurisdiction to award up to two years’ pay in the case of a breach of the Act, he ordered Jack & Jones to pay Mr Quinn €10,725.

He said the sum, equivalent to six months’ wages for Mr Quinn, was “just and equitable having regard to all the circumstances”.

Mr Stokes also ordered the retailer to “comply with the payment of Sunday premia for all of its employees”.

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