Background:

The Complainant is a nurse working at the Respondent hospital. The Complainant said she worked 5 days a week, Monday to Friday, 8.5 hours each day. However, the Complainant’s contractual working hours were 39 hours per week, resulting in an average of 7.8 contractual working hours per day. Despite these contractual hours, it was agreed that the Complainant’s actual working hours were often, if not always, in the pattern described by the Complainant.

This disparity was relevant when the Respondent calculated the Complainant’s pay for public holidays which occurred on a Monday. The Respondent paid the Complainant 7.8 hours for those days, but the Complainant believed she should be paid 8.5 hours for them, as this represented her “normal daily hours” as calculated under S.I. 495/1997 – Organisation of Working Time (Determination of Pay for Holidays) Regulations, 1997.

The Respondent argued that the payment of 7.8 hours for public holidays was pursuant to collective agreement and national policy as determined by the HSE’s terms and conditions of employment. They said a change to their processes would create serious organisational challenges and could result in significant costs for them across many workers.

Outcome:

The Adjudication Officer found that the “normal weekly working hours” and “normal daily working hours” as defined by the Regulations were the working hours as described by the Complainant. This resulted in the Complainant having been underpaid by 42 minutes for the six public holidays which were before the WRC for consideration, a period which roughly equated to a total loss of €120. The Adjudication Officer, exercising his discretion to award up to two years compensation for such a breach, awarded the Complainant a total of €400 in respect of these breaches.

Practical Guidance for Employers:

The calculation of public holiday pay and pay for annual leave is a surprisingly challenging and technical topic which requires careful consideration. It is also notable that an Adjudication Officer is not limited in working time claims to only award financial loss, but instead to award what is “just and equitable having regard to all the circumstances of the case.”

The full case is here:
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2023/september/adj-00033505.html