WRC rules that Verizon won’t have to pay hotel and conference fees for staff

Verizon won’t have to pay hotel bills and conference fees to four staff representatives from its pan-European works council for a Brexit training course following a landmark case before the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

The dispute, centring on an invoice for under €12,000 and conference fees of about €1,250 for each of four attendees, plus travel and subsistence, was contested over five days of hearing at the tribunal by legal teams, including Irish employment law barristers and the former German minister for justice.

Issuing its first-ever rulings under the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Act 1996, the tribunal ordered the telecoms company to pay a Czech worker €4,000 after the firm accused him of misleading local managers about the conference, and threatened disciplinary action.

The WRC also ordered Verizon to split a €11,220 bill from an expert who advised members of its works council on Brexit and their legal position after a previous agreement lapsed in late 2020.

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The complaints were taken against Verizon Ireland Ltd, representing the central management of the group, by workers Jan Frӧding of its Swedish subsidiary; Pavel Macho of the Czech arm; Kevin Rodgers of its Danish firm; and Jean-Phillippe Charpentier, an employee of the multinational’s French subsidiary and chairman of its European Works Council (EWC).

The WRC was told the company had not reimbursed three of the workers for fees or travel expenses for a training conference in Hamburg in September 2021, while Mr Macho had his travel paid for but was refused other sums.

The workers’ barrister, Tony Kerr SC, who appeared on the instructions of former German justice minister Dr Herta Däubler-Gmelin of law firm Schwegler, argued that the European directive behind the Act required the firm to provide for training to address the “inequality of arms” in legal knowledge between it and the workers’ representatives.

The workers’ committee chairman, Mr Charpentier, told the WRC they were “left hungry” by the training provided after the Brexit-related transfer of the works council to Irish jurisdiction, and the lapsing of a previous agreement. He said they engaged a €300-an-hour expert adviser and went to the Hamburg conference to address the “vacuum” in expertise.

A company industrial relations officer, Dragos Voinescu, said in evidence that Mr Macho’s emails to his line management looking for travel expenses indicated that the complainant “wanted to hide” the “clear” position of central management in refusing to pay the conference expenses, Mr Voinescu said.

Barrister Tom Mallon BL, appearing for Verizon instructed by Lewis Silken Solicitors, denied penalisation and said the workers “could not have a blank cheque regarding training”, but said the firm was prepared to cover part of the expert’s fees.

In four parallel decisions issued in the matter, WRC adjudicating officer Kevin Baneham told the workers they had standing to take their claims on the conference expenses, but that they had not acted in the “spirit of co-operation” required by the directive.

Mr Baneham said after the firm was “clear” it would not pay, the correct action for the workers would have been to lodge a complaint rather than to go anyway and send the bill.

However, the adjudicator found the company’s actions towards Mr Macho “were not warranted” – and, ruling that he had been penalised, awarded him €4,000 in compensation.

Mr Baneham also found the council’s failure to alert central management that they were hiring the expert until the work had already started was not in the “spirit of co-operation” and so some items on the invoice could not be billed to the company.

He made an order for €5,610 – 50 per cent of the total – to be paid to the chairman, Mr Charpentier.