Labour Court awards €204k to man over 7 years’ work

THE Labour Court has made one of its highest ever awards, €204,352, to a man found to have worked for seven years for payments understood to be less than the minimum wage.

Surinder Singh’s case against his employer Longford-based Ardarsh Puri was first brought before the rights commissioner last March, but the employer failed to implement the recommendation.

It is believed Mr Singh’s case was that he had worked up to 100 hours per week at rates well below the minimum wage.

The court said, because the decision had not been carried out by Mr Puri and he had not made any appeal against the Rights Commissioner’s findings, it was ordering him to pay the money owed to Mr Singh under the National Minimum Wage Act 2000.

In a second case against Mr Puri also brought as a result of a non-payment of a rights commissioner ruling, Arti Rani, who worked for him for a much shorter time was awarded €12,715.

Meanwhile, a painting contractor has been found by the Labour Court not to have complied with the Registered Employment Agreement in the construction industry and has been ordered to pay €73,304. The case was brought before the court by the Construction Industry Federation which claimed that Conneally Painting Contractors had not complied the REA when it failed to enter its employees in an approved pension, assurance and sick pay scheme between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2006.

The award was made in spite of the fact the employer claimed it wanted to be compliant with the REA, but did not believe it should be compelled to contribute retrospectively to the scheme.