Family paid au pair just €2.78 an hour

Boss demanded nanny’s savings after she gave notice

A COUPLE unlawfully demanded an au pair’s entire savings of €510 when she told them she was leaving her post, the Labour Court has ruled.

Brazilian nanny Dayana Jonson Goncalves Generoso was left with no money after paying over the cash in July 2016.

Her employers, Thomas and Bernardine McCormack, had paid her an effective hourly rate of €2.78. Mr McCormack told the court he was aware that €510 was the sum total of money in the au pair’s possession at the time.

In two separate rulings, the court ordered Mr and Mrs McCormack to reimburse the €510 to the au pair and to pay over an additional €4,947 in light of her low pay.

The decision came after the couple appealed an earlier decision by the Workplace Relations Commission, which had ordered Mr and Mrs McCormack to pay Ms Generoso €1,444.

The €4,947 award more than triples the €1,444 award made by a Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer. That award and the €510 award were both appealed by the McCormacks to the Labour Court.

The court heard that in July 2016 Ms Generoso gave two days’ notice to the McCormack family, from Milltown in Dublin, that she would be leaving her post.

Mr McCormack told the court it was his understanding that Ms Generoso was obliged to give four weeks’ notice and so he informed her that she was required to pay them four weeks’ pay in lieu.

At the hearing, Mr McCormack said that he sought €540 and Ms Generoso said that she was only in a position to give him €510. He accepted that amount in discharge of her obligation.

He said that he asked Ms Generoso to sign a form indicating that the monies had been paid in lieu of four weeks’ notice.

Mr McCormack said that at the start of her role, in February 2016, Ms Generoso was told that she would have to give four weeks’ notice of her intention to cease working for the McCormacks.

Ms Generoso said that as she had only €480 on her she had to borrow €30 from a friend who was collecting her to give Mr McCormack €510, and that she had no money when she left the McCormacks’ home.

Ms Generoso had worked for the McCormacks from February 29 to July 13, 2016, and was paid €150 a week and provided with accommodation. She worked 54 hours a week, from 7am to 5pm and was also required to provide four hours’ babysitting.

The couple’s solicitor had argued that Ms Generoso was in Ireland on a visa which restricted her working hours. As she worked an average of 54 hours a week, her contract was illegal and she had no right to go to the Labour Court, it was claimed.

This argument was dismissed by the Labour Court. Making the €4,947 award, the court found that at the time of the claim, the minimum wage was €9.15 and the deduction for board and lodgings was €54.13 per week which works out at €1,064 for the time that Ms Generoso was employed.

Both cases were taken on Ms Generoso’s behalf by Migrant Rights Centre Ireland.

Couple ordered to pay over €5,000