The Labour Court has awarded €21,422 in compensation to a former mushroom farm worker who worked an average of 80 hours a week from December 2012 to August 2016, in violation of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. According to Section 15 of that Act, employees cannot work more than 48 hours over a seven-day period.
The case was an appeal from the decision of an Adjudication Officer at the Workplace Relations Commission, which found that the applicant’s claim relating to her work hours, public holiday pay and annual leave were “not well founded”.
The applicant alleged that her former employer, Stablefield Ltd in Clogheen Co. Tipperary, falsified her work hours so that it looked like she worked less hours than she actually did.
According to the Organisation of Working Time Act, when an employer does not record work hours in an appropriate manner, the onus is on them to prove that they have complied with the Act. In this case, the Labour Court said that there was a clear contradiction between the evidence of the applicant and that of the respondent but that the respondents had failed to present sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption that they had violated the Act. This being the case, the Court found in the applicant’s favour.
The applicant was represented pro bono by Sharon Dillon-Lyons BL and A&L Goodbody Solicitors, and supported by the Migrants Rights Centre Ireland.
Click here to read the decision.