A group of Limerick City restaurant workers who decided to close down the premises in a revolt over unpaid wages have won nearly €22,000 for employment rights breaches.
The former head chef at the restaurant, Frederico Madureira, had told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that he had worked 111 hours per week in an effort to get the business up and running in 2023.
Nine former staff of The Food Point Limited of Henry Street, Limerick City, have each secured awards for sums ranging from just under €1,500 to nearly €3,800 on foot of complaints to the WRC against their former employer under the Payment of Wages Act and the Organisation of Working Time Act.
The orders against the company, which has a registered address at Thomas Street in Limerick City, were for non-payment of wages and failure to pay a premium rate for Sunday work.
Mr Madureira, told the WRC last year that staff pay came late in October 2023 and did not come at all for some workers. Nobody working at the restaurant got their wages when the November payroll was due, he added.
“They decided to close the restaurant because they didn’t get paid. I think everyone should receive pay for working. If they don’t get paid, they shouldn’t have to work. I agree with them,” he said of the rest of the staff.
Mr Madureira described working long hours to get the kitchen open when the business was launched in September 2023 – stating in his complaint form that he had worked 222 hours in the space of a fortnight and confirming this in sworn evidence.
“111 hours a week?” he was asked by WRC adjudicator Ewa Sobanska.
“When they asked me to start working, I said it would take one month at least to open the kitchen. They gave me 24 hours, that’s why I worked so much,” he said.
The chef told Ms Sobanska he had opened up the restaurant kitchen while lacking cooking equipment and was even taking home kitchen linen to launder them, as the restaurant didn’t have a washing machine of its own.
He said he had been paid for the 222 hours at €12.80 an hour – but had been paid nothing for 163 hours of work he alleged ought to have been paid to him in November.
Giving evidence during a series of hearings between October and December 2024, eight of Mr Madueira’s colleagues also gave evidence that they were left without their wages for November 2023.
“They stopped paying us, so we stopped working,” one of the workers, kitchen assistant Rafaela dos Santos said.
She was giving evidence through a Portuguese-language interpreter, in common with many of her colleagues. The WRC noted that the workers’ claims had been advanced by one colleague who had the best command of English of the group.
Five of the workers had been on the minimum wage of €11.30 which was in force at the time, with two others earning a euro or two more. In each case, the worker also testified that they had received no additional pay above their hourly rate for working Sundays and had been paid nothing in respect of accrued annual leave either.
The employer failed to appear before the WRC or send a representative when hearings were called on into the complaints of Mr Madureira, Ms dos Santos and another worker, Patrícia Gasperíni, in the autumn of 2024.
Representatives from Dermot G O’Donovan solicitors, acting for the employer, did attend hearings into other workers’ complaints last December, after adjournments were granted.
The company’s solicitors said at that stage that company director Igor Roese de Conto was “unable to attend due to stress” on the days those hearings were called on. The adjudicator noted that there was “no medical evidence” to support this and that the company was not seeking a postponement.
Ms Sobanska awarded the workers sums ranging from €962 to €2,926 for unpaid wages and annual leave under the Payment of Wages Act.
She also made orders directing the employer to top up eight of the workers’ Sunday wages by 30% for the duration of their employment and directed the payment of an additional €500 in compensation to them for the rights breach under the Organisation of Working Time Act.
To date, workers Dheinifer Andrade, Deivission Bernabe, Jeneffe Silva, Jasmina Yassine, Rafaela dos Santos, Frederico Madureira, Patrícia Gasperini, Cadmilo Brandao and Cassio Ramos have secured awards against the company. The total awarded was €21,728.
Addressing claims seeking notice pay which had been lodged by all of the workers under the Payment of Wages Act, Ms Sobanska noted that some of the workers had been clear that they “walked out” of the job over the non-payment of wages.
One of the workers gave evidence that he “did not resign” and contended that he and all the other workers were dismissed by a company director.
Ultimately, as none of the nine had worked the 13 weeks required to qualify for a statutory notice payment, Ms Sobanska rejected their claims under this section.
The workers had also referred complaints under the National Minimum Wage Act 2000. However, as none of them had sought a statement of working hours from their employer, Ms Sobanska declined jurisdiction, noting that this did not prevent them from seeking the statement and lodging fresh complaints.
