A vegetable processing and packaging business paid a Sunday allowance of 5 cent per hour to a minimum-wage worker who was regularly required to work 15-hour days. That is why, at the Workplace Relations Commission, Adjudicator Catherine Byrne ordered Monaghan-based vegetable processing firm, Sillis Green Veg Ltd to pay Ms Aldona Pileckiene €15,000 compensation. Ms Byrne has found that Ms Pileckiene’s working conditions relating to Sunday work and her excessively long working hours “resulted in serious contraventions” of the OWT Act.
On behalf of Ms Pileckiene, Joe Smith BL, instructed by Elena Gray of Barry Healy & Co Solicitors, told the WRC hearing that Ms Pileckiene started work at 4am and sometimes 3am, and was required to work “until finished”, meaning she regularly worked 13, 14 or 15 hours a day.
In evidence, Lithuanian national Ms Pileckiene said a busy week could see her working 65, 66 or 67 hours, and the longest she ever worked was 75 hours in a week. She added she sometimes worked 17 or 18 hours a day. In her ruling, Ms Byrne ordered Sillis Green Veg to pay Ms Pileckiene €10,000 over its failure to prevent her from working in excess of 48 hours a week.
Source: breakingnews.ie