WRC rejects Patrick Mckenny’s €195.67 wage deduction complaint

The Workplace Relations Commission found Patrick Mckenny’s complaint over a €195.67 pay deduction not well founded. Its decision, dated 2 February 2023, concerned an afternoon he spent working at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s Monaghan office instead of Cavan. Mckenny said he worked his usual duties in Monaghan after deciding the Cavan office was too crowded. The Department said he had been instructed to remain in Cavan to complete specific tasks and left without authorisation. The officer accepted that the Department reasonably treated Mckenny’s absence from Cavan as unauthorised. Under the rules governing his employment, he was not entitled to pay for unauthorised absence, so the Department could deduct the overpayment. The WRC dismissed his Payment of Wages Act complaint.