Euro Parks Ireland Ltd Euro Car Parks (Represented by ARAG Legal Protection) v Mr Paul Scales (Represented by KCSE Ltd)

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 05 December 2022
• Judgment citation (vLex): [2022] 12 JIEC 0502
• Docket Number: FULL RECOMMENDATION ADJ-00028709, CA-00038749-004 DETERMINATION NO. RPD2210 REDUNDANCY PAYMENTS ACTS, 1967 TO 2014
• Court: Labour Court (Ireland)

PARTIES:

Euro Parks Ireland Limited Euro Car Parks (Represented by ARAG Legal Protection)

and

Mr Paul Scales (Represented by KCSE Limited)

FULL RECOMMENDATION

RPA/22/6

ADJ-00028709, CA-00038749-004

DETERMINATION NO. RPD2210

REDUNDANCY PAYMENTS ACTS, 1967 TO 2014

Full Court

DIVISION:

Chairman: Mr Geraghty

Employer Member: Mr O'Brien

Worker Member: Ms Treacy

SUBJECT:

1 1. Appeal Of Adjudication Officer Decision No(S) ADJ-00028709, CA-00038749-004.

BACKGROUND:

2 2. This is an appeal under the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967. Mr. Scales, ‘the Complainant’ made complaints to the Workplace Relations Commission, ‘WRC’, against his former employer Euro Parks Ireland Ltd., ‘the Respondent’ under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015, the Redundancy Payments Act 1967, the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973 and the Protection of Employees’ Temporary Agency Work) Act 2012, ‘the Acts’. An Adjudication Officer, ‘AO’, decided that the complaints were not well founded.

DETERMINATION:

Preliminary Issue.

3 S.44 of the Workplace Relations Act 2015 reads as follows;

4 (3) Subject to subsection (4), a notice under subsection (2) shall be given to the Labour Court not later than 42 days from the date of the decision concerned.

5 (4) The Labour Court may direct that a notice under subsection (2) may be given to it after the expiration of the period specified in subsection (3) if it is satisfied that the notice was not so given before such expiration due to the existence of exceptional circumstances.

6 The AO Decision is dated 13 December 2021. The appeal was received by the Court on 28 January 2022, outside of the 42 day period.

7 The parties were advised in advance that the Court would deal with the question, as a preliminary matter, of whether there were ‘exceptional circumstances’ to warrant the exercise of its authority to extend the period for receipt of the appeal.

8 Because the Complainant represented himself at the hearing and because there had been some initial administrative confusion regarding the date on which his appeal had been received by the Court, reassurance was sought by the Court that he understood that the Court was dealing solely with this preliminary matter and that he had understood this in advance of the hearing commencing. The Complainant confirmed that he had received the Court's communication in advance and that he understood.

Summary of Complainant arguments on the preliminary matter.

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