Employment law solicitor Richard Grogan of Richard Grogan & Associates Solicitors examines a Labour Court case concerning annual leave and public holidays.

The case of Meades Bar Limited, trading as Victoria Café, and Layala Smalli DWT1727 is a case where the employee appealed the decision of the Adjudication Officer and a compensation of six days’ pay for annual leave and three days’ pay for public holidays was granted.

The Court in this case reviewed the legislation at depth including the jurisdictional issue which is covered in the case of Royal Liver Assurance -v- Macken and others 4 IR427 in the High Court, which held that an infringement of section 19 of the Act crystallised at the end of the leave year to which it relates. The Court also pointed out that Mr Justice Lavin found that each breach of the Act in respect of an employee’s entitlement to receive pay for working on a public holiday was a discrete contravention of the Act and a complaint in respect of that offence must be brought within six months of its occurrence. In this case the Labour Court held that employee submitted her claim on 29 August 2016. The employee’s employment had finished on 2 July 2016. The Labour Court held that the relevant period was from 23 October 2015 to 2 July 2015. The employee commenced employment in October 2015. The Court found that therefore the claim as it related to failure to provide the Complainant with her entitlement to annual leave in a leave year ending on 31 March 2016 and the entitlement to leave in the leave year commencing on 1 April 2016 could all be heard.

The Labour Court helpfully set out the legislation and significant amount of case law relating to article 7 of the Directive 93/104/EC and in relation to the issue of annual leave and pointed out that paid annual leave is a fundamental social right in the law of the community. The Labour Court found that the employee was entitled to the sum of €320 in respect of the breach of section 21 of the Act and €1,152 in respect of section 23 of the Act being the underpayment of the public holidays and annual leave. The Court then pointed out that the complainant is not limited to recovering the economic or monetary value of the payment withheld. The Court pointed out that compensation up to two years’ pay could be made. The Court ordered a compensation of €2,000 to include the outstanding annual leave and public holiday payment as found by the Court to be paid.