Galway Hospice Foundation defeats sick-pay deductions complaint

The Workplace Relations Commission found a Payment of Wages complaint against Galway Hospice Foundation not well founded. Geraldine Fitzgerald had challenged deductions linked to illness benefit in four pay periods. The decision was dated 6 August 2024. Fitzgerald said the Foundation deducted an illness-benefit equivalent from her sick pay despite her not being eligible for the benefit. The Foundation said its former top-up scheme adjusted pay by an equivalent social-welfare amount even when an employee could not receive that benefit. The officer found the March and April 2023 deductions fell outside the period that could be examined, and the October 2023 complaint was out of time with no reasonable cause for an extension. For the January 2024 sick leave, Fitzgerald received top-up pay adjusted for the benefit equivalent, then full sick pay from 1 February. The officer found she had been paid the wages properly payable under the scheme.