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Latest in Employment Law>Case Law>Office of Public Works v a Group of Workers [2012]
Office of Public Works v a Group of Workers [2012]
Published on: 15/02/2013
Issues Covered: Working Time
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Background

Section 20 (1) of the OWT Act provides that the times at which annual leave is granted to an employee shall be determined by his or her employer. However, the employer concerned must take into account the need for the employee to reconcile work and any family responsibilities and the employee’s opportunities for rest and recreation. An employer must also consult the employee (or his/her trade union, if any) at least one month before the relevant period of annual leave is due to begin. 

In this case, the respondent employer decided to change a practice of over 20 years by obliging employees working in its Furniture Division to take annual leave on the working days between St Stephen’s Day and New Year’s Day, i.e. 28th, 29th and 30th December. The respondent maintained that it had first posted an ‘Office Notice’ in July 2011 notifying the change of practice and had followed it up to the 10 staff concerned with an email and a notice placed on the notice board. The workers argued that they were only informed of this change in December 2011 and that this amounted to a breach of S.20 (1) which obliged them to use up three days of their annual leave entitlement. A Rights Commissioner (RC) found in their favour and awarded each of them €300 in compensation. The respondent appealed this finding to the Labour Court.

On appeal, the Court noted that there were two separate notice boards in the workplace concerned; one for office and technical staff and the other for industrial grades. The workers union had argued that the July 2011 notice was placed on the wrong notice board and this was not rectified until mid-December 2011, less than one month before the annual leave was due to be taken. 

It also submitted that the wording of the notice arguably excluded industrial staff such as the claimants who already had existing arrangements in place. Finally, it argued that the notice when it was provided did not amount to consultation in any case but merely informed the workers of the change. The Court found on the balance of probabilities that the July notice was posted on the wrong board and that the respondent had neither notified nor consulted with the claimants around the timing of annual leave in the manner provided for in S.20 (1) of the OWT Act. The decision of the RC was therefore affirmed.

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 15/02/2013
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