The Labour Court affirmed a €4,336.07 award to lorry driver Jan Brocki and directed Ism Recruitment to pay a further €742.91 in compensation. Its determination, dated 14 September 2023, followed Brocki’s appeal over pay increases that had not been applied to him while he worked for a third-party hirer.
The Court allowed Brocki’s appeal to proceed despite its late arrival. It accepted evidence that emails sent on 6 July 2023 had failed because of a problem with the Court’s system, finding this an exceptional circumstance. The respondent had argued that the appeal was outside the statutory time limit.
The company had already paid €3,593.16 towards the original award. The Court said the €742.91 balance was compensation for the delayed application of the Act’s protections. It did not accept Brocki’s claim that arrears exceeded €4,900 because he supplied no documents to support that figure. The appeal also sought bonuses and a meal allowance, but the Court found those payments outside the relevant statutory definitions. It rejected the claim for Construction Industry Sectoral Employment Order rates because there was no evidence that comparable employees of the hirer were covered by the Order.