WRC dismisses 15 complaints after finding no employment relationship

The Workplace Relations Commission found that Mariana Nobrega was not an employee of Harrington Property Management and dismissed her 15 employment-rights complaints. Adjudication Officer Brian Dalton issued the decision, dated 25 July 2024. Nobrega said accommodation at a student residence was exchanged for increasingly demanding work, which she said included 20 to 30 extra hours a week. The company described the arrangement as rent-free accommodation in return for occasional help with residents’ out-of-hours problems. The adjudicator found the evidence did not support the hours Nobrega claimed and that the company had little or no control over the arrangement. He concluded it was a barter arrangement, not employment, because the assistance was ad hoc, unsupervised and could be provided by either Nobrega or her partner. The complaints under employment law were therefore not well founded.