The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ordered County Tipperary Chamber of Commerce to pay its CEO, David Shanahan, €12,854.80 in wages withheld during his paid suspension. The decision was dated 11 May 2022. One complaint succeeded and a duplicate complaint failed.
Shanahan said his suspension pay stopped on 23 March 2020, while a disciplinary investigation was still under way. The Chamber said pandemic restrictions had led it to place staff on unpaid lay-off, so the wages were not properly payable. The adjudicator found the disciplinary procedure entitled Shanahan to remain on full pay while the investigation continued. It gave no contractual basis for stopping that pay during lay-off, and the investigation itself had not stopped.
The WRC found the wages withheld from 23 March to 18 September 2020 were properly payable and that withholding them was an unlawful deduction. It ordered payment of €12,854.80, subject to normal income deductions. Shanahan’s second complaint was a duplicate, was not pursued at the hearing and was found not well founded.