WRC awards restaurant manager Patricia O’Malley €5,680 in notice pay

The Workplace Relations Commission found Pallomar Limited had to pay restaurant manager Patricia O’Malley €5,680, equivalent to eight weeks’ notice at her normal rate of pay. The decision was dated 8 July 2022. O’Malley worked for the company from 1989. Its premises stopped trading during Covid-19 restrictions in March 2020, and she was made redundant in August. She said she was due eight weeks’ notice pay. Pallomar argued she had effectively left voluntarily after a lay-off and that Pandemic Unemployment Payment meant no further payment was due. The officer found the redundancy was not in respect of lay-off as defined by law at the time, so O’Malley could not be treated as having left voluntarily. The officer also found the relevant average-pay period ran before the lay-off, and set her notice entitlement at eight weeks of her normal €710 weekly salary.