WRC orders four weeks’ pay for waitress over missing employment statement

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) upheld Ciara O’Connor’s complaint that her employer failed to give her a written statement of her employment terms, ordering four weeks’ pay as compensation. The decision was dated 2 December 2022. O’Connor worked as a waitress for Moylurg Rockingham DAC Ltd. t/a Lough Kee Forest Park. She said she had not received a contract and expected further seasonal and part-time work. The company said she had been hired for a fixed period and argued that her complaints were out of time. The WRC found the complaints were in time because O’Connor remained on lay-off until she was removed from the roster in February 2020. It upheld her complaint about the missing written statement. Her separate complaint about not being notified in writing of a change to her terms was not well founded; because she had never received a written statement, the WRC found she had no remedy for that complaint.