The Workplace Relations Commission found that Tornier Orthopedics Ireland Limited unlawfully deducted Anthony Bambury’s shift premium and directed compensation equivalent to the deductions, after lawful deductions. Its decision was dated 25 November 2022.
Bambury, who had worked for the company since 1988, said he had retained the premium for years while working daytime hours, but it was stopped in September 2021. The company argued he was not entitled to shift pay because he was not working shifts and described the payments as an overpayment.
The officer found that a manager had agreed Bambury could keep the premium and that the arrangement had become an implied contract term through custom and practice over 20 years. The company’s grouped transfer complaints and a separate complaint about written notification of a change to his terms were not well founded. The compensation was to cover the unlawfully deducted premium from the first deduction through receipt of the complaint, after lawful deductions.