The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has ordered Metron Stores Limited, which traded as Iceland and is in liquidation, to pay shop steward Jeanette Joyce €8,300 after finding she was penalised for her representative work. The decision was dated 26 August 2024.
Joyce worked as a retail assistant at the company’s Coolock branch and became an Independent Workers’ Union shop steward in 2023. She said she raised pay and working-condition issues with management and helped organise industrial action. The company did not attend the hearing; the WRC was satisfied it had notice.
The WRC found that Joyce qualified as an employee representative and that the law applied. It found that messages from the company’s chief executive, a High Court summons naming Joyce, and communications about her pay were intended to pressure and penalise her for her shop steward work. The WRC also found that the company sought to withhold her pay.
The law prohibits employers from treating employee representatives unfairly for carrying out their functions. The WRC found Joyce had been subjected to unfair treatment and actions prejudicial to her employment, and awarded compensation for the breach.