The manager of a convenience store who was penalised by her employer after she had informed Revenue about attempts not to pay her full wages through payroll has been awarded over €43,000 in compensation.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ruled the woman was treated unfairly by the company because she had made a protected disclosure about a breach of the tax code to Revenue.
The WRC heard she only reported the issue to the tax authorities after she got no satisfaction from trying to raise it with one of the company’s directors.
The unnamed company operates a suburban convenience store under a well-known retail brand.
The manager complained that her job had been reduced to mainly packing shelves after she had contacted Revenue in September 2023 about changes in the way her wages were paid.
The complainant told the WRC that she had informed Revenue that part of her salary had been paid from a bank account other than payroll.
When she raised the issue with a company director, the woman claimed she and a colleague were told the business could not sustain their wages and he wanted to pay part of what they were owed in cash.
The WRC said it was satisfied that the director had threatened the woman after he warned her there would be “consequences” about her objection to being paid part of her salary in cash.
While she was on sick leave in January 2024, the woman was informed about changes to her start and finish times at work.
However, she claimed she could not work until 3pm as rostered each weekday as she had to finish at 2pm, which resulted in her losing an hour's worth of pay every day.
It also had the effect of her having only 30 minutes to sort deliveries before the store opened, when she previously had 60 minutes to fulfil the task.
Micro-managed
The WRC also concluded that the company had permitted another manager appointed in May 2023 to take over the complainant’s role to penalise her by refusing to roster staff to help her and by “unnecessary supervision”.
The woman said she felt she was being micro-managed by the new manager and harassed by the way she was asked questions about the tasks she performed.
As she no longer had authority in the store, she said it must seem to its customers and staff that she had done something wrong.
The complainant also observed that the director said hello to everyone when he came to the shop, but ignored her. Instead, she claimed the director stared at her, which she said she found “intimidating”.
WRC adjudication officer, Catherine Byrne, said the woman did not simply have a reasonable belief but a clear understanding that what her employer was proposing was wrong.
Ms Byrne noted the woman had told her employer that she objected to being paid undeclared income as she did not want to be complicit in any wrongdoing.
“I agree with her assertion that the treatment she is being subjected to his intended to harass her and to cause her so much distress that she will leave her job,” Ms Byrne said.
She observed that every employer knows that paying wages “under the counter” is an offence.
The WRC noted that the complainant had her responsibilities removed, and she was effectively demoted regardless of the claims by the director that he had not told anyone to do her work.
It ordered the company to pay the manager compensation of €40,000 – the equivalent of one year’s gross salary.
The WRC also instructed the company to pay her a further €3,621 for breaches of employment legislation relating to underpayments to her salary and a failure to provide her with a statement setting out changes to her job following the appointment of another manager.
The convenience store did not attend or send a representative to the WRC hearing of the case last month after its application for a postponement was rejected.
