A long-serving chef at Shanahan’s on the Green in Dublin, which closed last year, has claimed he has not been paid anything for his notice period, outstanding holiday pay or his last week at work.
Sous chef Piotr Fraszczyk, who began working at the restaurant in November 2010, confirmed to the Workplace Relations Commission on Friday that he got his statutory redundancy after an en masse application was made on behalf of the employees following the restaurant’s closure in October.
“But I did not get the last week’s payment, and I still have 10 days’ holidays and I did not get my six weeks’ notice,” he told the commission.
Mr Fraszczyk was addressing a hearing into statutory complaints he has referred against JMS International Holding Ltd, trading as Shanahan’s on the Green, seeking a determination on the alleged outstanding sums.
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Giving evidence with the aid of an interpreter, in the absence of any representative of the company, Mr Fraszczyk said that he and other staff received a letter on October 13th last year stating that the restaurant had “ceased trading temporarily”.
Adjudicator Brian Dalton said it seemed that the complainant had been placed on layoff and had exercised his right to apply for redundancy after a number of weeks without work.
Mr Fraszczyk disagreed. “It’s actually the accountant who initiated the redundancy process, because she started to get it done en masse,” he said, referring to a letter of October 26th.
“That’s termination – that’s different, so then it moved to a place where it said it was closing,” Mr Dalton said.
“So she actually worked on behalf of all of you, she did it voluntarily, this accountant?” he asked the claimant.
“It was strange, everyone was so surprised,” Mr Fraszczyk said.
“She did it herself; she did it on behalf of the group of employees and she made representations to Social Welfare on behalf of all of you,” Mr Dalton said, reading the correspondence.
The complainant also told the WRC that his last week’s wages, a sum of roughly €750, were not paid.
Mr Fraszczyk’s further evidence was that he had only taken 10 days’ holidays in the annual leave year which started on January 1st, 2024.
Mr Dalton asked him to write in after the hearing and provide a payslip and a calculation of his claimed shortfall on the statutory entitlement.
“Because Shanahan’s is closed, there’s no money, so the only people you can get it from is the Department of Social Protection,” he told the complainant, before closing the hearing.
