Painter-decorator who claims employer assaulted him wins WRC case

A painter-decorator who told the Workplace Relations Commission he was assaulted by his former employer when he went “in desperation” to look for €1,645 in unpaid wages has won his case.

Shadeem Khan said he had been left in “financial difficulties” after making repeated requests to VS Painting and Decorating Solutions to be paid for eight and a half days’ work over Christmas 2021, and eventually went to his employer’s home.

He was then assaulted by his employer, he said in sworn evidence to the commission at a hearing on December 9th last year.

Mr Khan said he reported what happened to An Garda Síochána, which he said “noted the incident” and advised him “not to have anything further to do with the respondent and to pursue a civil remedy”.

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Mr Khan’s complaint under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 against VS Painting and Decorating Solutions was upheld by the tribunal in a decision published on Friday morning.

Mr Khan’s evidence was that he had agreed a rate of €120 a day, plus a €20 petrol allowance and was to get time-and-a-half on Sundays to work for the decorating firm when he started in November 2021.

He told the WRC he had not been paid at all for eight-and-a-half days’ work from Christmas Eve 2021 to January 3rd, 2022, including working on St Stephen’s Day, which fell on a Sunday that year, and New Year’s Day 2022.

Mr Khan said he was due a half day on the Sunday rate for working St Stephen’s Day that Christmas along with three days’ pay for the public holidays.

The value of the pay claim ran to €1,645, the tribunal heard.

Adjudicating officer Michael MacNamee heard the statutory complaint in the absence of any representative of the employer, writing that the company was on notice but had not made any written submissions or turned up on the day.

He wrote that he was satisfied on the basis of Mr Khan’s “uncontroverted sworn evidence” that the money had been “withheld from [his] wages” and amounted to an “unlawful deduction” under the Payment of Wages Act.

He ordered VS Painting And Decorating Solutions to pay Mr Khan €1,645, subject to tax and statutory deductions.