The High Court has ruled that three companies trading as RAC Eire systematically understated the hours worked by 27 Portuguese employees on the N7 Nenagh to Limerick road project, underpaying them in breach of their employment contracts.
In a judgment delivered on 18 March 2016, Mr Justice David Keane awarded each worker damages for unpaid wages, based on calculations by the workers’ accountant. He also ordered interest under section 22 of the Courts Act 1981, running from when each worker’s cause of action accrued to the date of judgment. The judgment does not state the individual or total awards.
The court heard that workers generally said they started at 7am and worked into the evening on weekdays, with Saturday hours often extending beyond midday. The companies’ labour diaries recorded shorter hours. NERA inspector Fran Power said the records were false; the companies had been convicted in the District Court over a false or misleading record. On appeal, one company was acquitted, while the other two were found to have committed the offence but were not formally convicted after the court applied the Probation of Offenders Act.
Justice Keane found on the balance of probabilities that workers’ hours remained broadly similar after July 2008, rejecting the companies’ argument that the hours had fallen. He concluded that deliberate under-recording and underpayment continued throughout each worker’s employment.
The court also ordered repayment of deductions for accommodation, laundry and “benefit in kind”. It found the accommodation at the site compound was of a deplorable, potentially dangerous standard, so no accommodation deduction was justified. Laundry deductions were not calculated by weighing the laundry, as the contracts required, and the companies did not explain their basis. The companies accepted they were not standing over the benefit-in-kind deductions.
The court found the meals were of a reasonable standard and the €15 daily board deduction was fair. It rejected the workers’ argument that the deduction should be reduced by reference to a maximum allowance used in calculating compliance with the national minimum wage.
Justice Keane also found that the written contracts were procured for the unlawful purpose of concealing the companies’ intention not to comply with construction industry pay requirements. He nevertheless held that the contracts remained enforceable by the workers, who had performed their obligations lawfully and without knowledge of that purpose.
The ruling was confined to the workers’ contractual claims. The court did not determine their other employment-law claims, award aggravated or exemplary damages, or grant either of two declarations they sought.