WRC rejects bus driver’s complaints over two days’ unpaid leave

The WRC found Niall Burke’s Payment of Wages and Organisation of Working Time complaints against Bus Eireann were not well founded. Adjudication Officer Patsy Doyle dated the decision 16 February 2022. Burke said he applied for two days’ leave in July 2020 but was not paid after taking them. The National Bus & Rail Union argued that a workplace agreement required the company to respond to leave requests within 48 hours. Bus Eireann said it had no record of an application and that the leave was unapproved. The officer found Burke’s absence was unauthorised, so wages for those days were not properly payable; he also found the leave fell outside the statutory annual-leave provisions.