K-Zine

Employment law update

1. National Minimum Wage
The National Minimum Wage increased from €6.35 to €7.00 per hour on the 1st February, 2004. This increase applies to all experienced adult employees, whether full time or part -time employees and the €7.00 per hour is the gross amount i.e., before tax or PRSI is deducted.

There is a scale ranging from €4.90 per hour to €6.30 per hour for employees who are under the age of 18 years of age or who are in the first two years of their employment over the age of 18 years.

2. Two Recent Employment Appeals Tribunal Decisions
In the case Flannery - v - Sourceskills Limited the Employment Appeals Tribunal awarded an employee €15,000 in a constructive dismissal claim.

The Tribunal said that the onus was on the employer to show that the manner in which the employee's employment was terminated did not amount to an unfair dismissal and that this onus had not been discharged by the employer.

The employee claimed that she was pressurised into a situation where her only option was to accept that her job had been terminated. Sourceskills Limited argued that the employee had resigned and denied that she had been dismissed.

The Tribunal noted that when the employee was called into a number of meetings with her employer she was on her own, with absolutely no support even though it was clear that she must have been in a high state of anxiety.

The second case was taken by the General Manager of the DSPCA who claimed that she had experienced open hostility form her employer, that she felt that she was continually "on trial" and that she had been undermined during the course of her employment. The DSPCA contended that the dismissal was on grounds of redundancy but this was rejected by the Tribunal.

The significant factors in the Tribunal's findings was the failure of the employer to notice the severe stress suffered by the employee and also the general remoteness of the employer in their day to day contact with the employee.

The Tribunal acknowledged that the employee was still suffering from stress at the time of the hearing and did not discount the award of €30,000 by her failure to mitigate her losses by returning to work.