Sanctioned Russian aircraft leasing firm ordered to pay worker €12,000 in unpaid wages

A Russian aircraft leasing firm which closed down its Irish office when it was hit by the EU’s Ukraine war sanctions has been ordered to pay nearly €12,000 to a former manager.

The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) made the order under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 to Anton Gremin, who was a technical manager at Avia Capital Leasing Ltd in Sandyford, Dublin.

The tribunal rejected a further claim Mr Gremin had made under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, ruling there had been a redundancy situation when it closed up.

The lessor told staff on April 26th last year that it was terminating their employment because its shareholders had been placed under “freezing sanctions” by the EU over the war in Ukraine, the WRC heard.

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Mr Gremin, one of a number of former staff who have lodged pay claims against the lessor, said that he did not receive his €5,986-a-month salary for the two months prior to the complete closure of the firm’s Irish office.

However, he told the employment tribunal that when he queried his position with the Revenue Commissioners he was advised that his former employer had “paid his taxes” for those two months – but not €11,970.80 due as salary.

A termination letter to Mr Gremin stated that Avia’s two shareholders, the state-owned bank VTB and the aircraft leasing group GTLK, had been “added to the list of designated persons” on April 8th, 2022.

“The company has been attempting to perform the payments of salary since February 24th, 2022, and these have not been processed ... due to sanctions and [the] geopolitical situation and insufficient liquidity of funds,” the termination letter read.

Three other former employees of Avia are known to have brought pay claims for the same two-month period prior to its closure.

Last month, Elena Bondareva, an administrator with the firm, won a claim for €5,545.74, consisting of €5,000 in pay for March and April 2022 and a further €545.74 for unpaid annual leave entitlements, on top of a ruling that she was entitled to statutory redundancy.

Avia Capital Leasing Ltd made no appearance in either Mr Gremin’s case or in Ms Bondareva’s case when they were heard in person at Lansdowne House in Dublin in March and May this year.

However, in separate proceedings brought by two other former staff in April, the aircraft lessor’s Moscow-based lawyer, Stanislav Dobshevich said: “The issue is pretty simple – we don’t have bank accounts which aren’t frozen in Europe.”

In Mr Gremin’s case WRC adjudicating officer Roger McGrath rejected the complaint of unfair dismissal, making a finding that there had been a redundancy situation. He found the sum of €11,970.80 claimed by Mr Gremin was properly payable as wages and made an order to that effect.