Two former staff of a tech company who quit after going without their full pay for five months have won more than €45,000 for non-payment of salary and constructive dismissal.
The workers, Anoushka Anilkumar Parmar and Tushar Joshi, told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) they received just €2,000 from Cleandata Limited between late January and early June 2022 – less than a fortnight’s salary each in the space of five months.
Giving evidence on statutory complaints under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and the Payment of Wages Act 1991, the workers explained that Cleandata had “gone through financial difficulties in the past” which had impacted their salaries.
“In January 2022, these resurfaced and the complainant’s salary essentially stopped,” the tribunal noted in a summary of their evidence.
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Ms Parmar should have been paid €2,500 at the end of each month and was due €10,500 in outstanding wages, the workers’ lawyers submitted. Mr Joshi was due €14,500, they added.
Both employees handed in their notice on June 3rd, 2022, considering themselves to have been constructively dismissed, they told the tribunal.
The workers said they waited for more than six months to lodge employment rights claims because the company’s former chief executive had been “promising” to rehire them in another company, and they were wary of jeopardising their prospects.
There was no appearance by the respondent company on foot of a hearing notification to its registered address, WRC adjudicator David James Murphy noted.
In his decisions on the claims, Mr Murphy noted that complaints were lodged after the WRC’s standard deadline of six months from the alleged breach. However, he wrote that because the CEO of CleanData had been promising to pay the workers their back wages, rehire them via an associated company and arrange for them to relocate to France, they were “led to believe they were being rehired”.
“I believe it is reasonable to recognise the damage submitting WRC complaints would have caused to such prospects. I am satisfied that that reason explains and excuses the delay, particularly in the context of [their] visa status,” Mr Murphy wrote, and found he had grounds to extend his jurisdiction.
As Ms Parmar “found a job almost immediately after her constructive dismissal” and had no financial loss, Mr Murphy wrote that he could “only award her four weeks’ wages” of €2,500 in compensation.
He wrote that he was “satisfied” with Mr Joshi’s efforts to find new work in the 24 weeks he was out of work, noting that the complainant had signed up with recruiters, applied for some 185 jobs and interviewed for 30 posts before he secured a new job for more pay in November 2022. Mr Joshi was awarded his full loss of earnings for the period he was out of work, €18,288.
The total sums awarded against Cleandata Ltd was €45,788.
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