WRC orders company to pay Patrick Cosgrave €430.67 over wage deduction

The Workplace Relations Commission ordered Commercial Engineering Solutions Ltd. (C.E.S.) to pay Patrick Cosgrave €430.67 gross after finding that a deduction from his final wages was unlawful. A separate complaint about a redundancy-payment shortfall was outside the WRC’s jurisdiction. The decision, dated 1 November 2023, concerned a €430.67 deduction after Cosgrave’s company van was damaged and an alleged €1,356 shortfall in redundancy pay. Cosgrave said he had been told he would receive €15,000. The company said he had signed an agreement allowing deductions for vehicle damage; it maintained that the redundancy payment it made was statutory and any additional amount was ex gratia. The officer found the final wages were due on 8 July 2022 and that Cosgrave had not received a week’s written notice of the deduction. The WRC ordered the company to pay the gross amount within 42 days. It had no jurisdiction under the Payment of Wages Act to decide the redundancy complaint, so the merits of that claim were not decided.