A worker who said she continued to receive a trainee wage, despite working 50 hours a week or more after being promoted to manage an Iceland branch by herself in the final months before the supermarket chain shut, has won €1,900 in compensation.
The Workplace Relations Commission made the award to Elizabeth Campbell on foot of her complaint under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, in which she alleged Metron Stores Ltd (in liquidation) trading as Iceland, failed to make good on the rate of pay set out in her job contract.
At a hearing in June, Ms Campbell's trade union rep, Damien Keogh of the Independent Workers’ Union, said she was "made up as a store manager" at the supermarket’s branch in Talbot Street, Dublin 1 in June 2023 and issued with a contract of employment for the next three months.
Ms Campbell’s evidence was that despite her promotion, she continued to be paid her trainee manager salary of €509 a week – around €26,500 – instead of the €32,000 a year specified in the new contract up to when she was lost her job.
The IWU said Ms Campbell had been left short €1,884.56 over her final three months because of this disparity.
This was in addition to ongoing payroll "discrepancies" going back to February 2023, it was submitted.
Ms Campbell’s new responsibilities required her to work "50+ hours a week" without overtime, Mr Keogh said. "Despite numerous requests to be paid her salary, she wasn’t," he said.
Ms Campbell said she had to "continuously follow up" on her pay in her first four weeks in the new role – the union entering a series of WhatsApp messages to an area manager into evidence.
"I was still on my old salary and I was left short on it," she said. Other texts in the chain with the manager showed she was "covering" a store manager’s duties at the time, she said.
"It was extremely stressful, because the store manager and assistant manager had actually left. I was running it on my own. I was being left short, so were a lot of the staff. While trying to fight for my own wages, I was trying to get staff wages as well," she said.
She was at the Talbot Street supermarket until the end of June 2023 until the company shut down the store, whereupon she was directed to send the staff of that branch home and return to her original place of work in Ballyfermot, the tribunal heard.
She said that on her return to Ballyfermot, she had been left responsible for preparing rosters, inquiring about payments to staff, clocking in to cover vacant shifts, and make wholesale orders – all duties "our old store manager would have done", she said.
She was laid off with other staff in the Ballyfermot store at the end of August 2023, she added.
There had been "discrepancies" with payroll going back to February, Ms Campbell said, explaining that she was herself "left short" on her wages that month and only got the back pay when workers were "talking about striking" that summer. The new owner of the supermarket chain, Naeem Maniar, came to her store and apologised personally for the issue, she told the tribunal.
Adjudicator Elizabeth Spelman found Ms Campbell’s evidence to be credible, detailed and corroborated by documentary evidence – satisfying her the worker had demonstrated that Metron Stores was in breach of the Terms of Employment (Information) Act (1994) in the case.
She awarded compensation of €1,900.
Ms Campbell is one of around 35 to 40 ex-Iceland staff represented by the IWU who referred complaints to the WRC last year alleging various breaches of their employment rights. The cohort represents more than one in ten of the 300 former employees of the group.
The tribunal was told in December 2023 that claims under the Payment of Wages Act by these workers against the shuttered supermarket group were being withdrawn by arrangement between the union and the liquidator, who was facilitating applications to the Employers Insolvency Fund by the workers, including Ms Campbell.
At that stage, the liquidator and the IWU took the joint position that they were unlikely to reach agreement on complaints brought by the workers concerning allegations of discrimination, unfair dismissal, and contractual breaches.
Last month, IWU shop steward Jeanette Joyce was awarded over €8,000 for being penalised in connection with trade union activity after she led a strike at the supermarket’s branch in Coolock in May 2023.
More hearings are expected to take place in October.
