A worker who said he had to split up his family for months due to the withdrawal of a job offer at the Brodericks confectionery company has lost his statutory pay claim against the company.
The Workplace Relations Commission heard a change in management took place as Predrag Grubisa and his family prepared for a permanent move to Ireland for the job – and that he had already cancelled his lease and taken his son out of school when the job offer was withdrawn.
In a decision just published, the employment tribunal has rejected Mr Grubisa’s claim under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 against Ina’s Kitchen Desserts Ltd, trading as Brodericks, seeking an order for three months’ pay in lieu of notice, which he maintained was a stipulation of his contract.
His employment rights claim was rejected by the WRC, which found that as Mr Grubisa was not an employee, the sum was not recoverable as wages.
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At a hearing last November, the company said at the time of its dealings with Mr Grubisa, the Broderick family was “in the process of buying the business back” from an investment fund.
“The Brodericks had requested that no further staff should be taken on until the Brodericks had acquired the business,” a company representative said in submission.
Its position was that the fund manager, BDO, “did not honour this request and were trying to take on staff” – including Mr Grubisa, with the Broderick family discovering he had been hired on October 1st.
“The Brodericks family requested that the complainant’s contract be terminated,” the company rep submitted, in order to “streamline the business” and make it “more viable” – arguing this was needed to “ensure the survival of the company”.
The firm confirmed Mr Grubisa had been offered the job and had signed and returned his contract – but had a “provisional” start date of October 26th, 2021.
The complainant said that after the firm confirmed receipt of his signed contract on Tuesday, September 28th, he began preparations to move his family to Ireland.
He told the tribunal he cancelled his lease in Italy and took his son out of school there, and that his wife also resigned from her job.
He said he was told the following Monday, October 4th, 2021, that the ownership of the company had changed and the job he was offered was “no longer available”.
Mr Grubisa said his family was “forced to separate” as a result of the situation.
He went to live with his parents in Croatia, while his wife and son had to go and live with her parents in Serbia – leaving his son “unable to return to school” until February, 2022, he said.
Mr Grubisa’s solicitor, Barry Crushell, said that as his client’s contract made provision for a three-month notice period, he was entitled to wages in lieu of notice which was “never paid”.
In her decision on the case, adjudicating officer Valerie Murtagh noted there was a “revocation” of the job offer on October 4th, 2021.
Ms Murtagh found the complainant had not been an employee of the company and so there was “no breach” of the Payment of Wages Act in the case, rejecting the claim.
