Woman wins €7,500 on out-of-hours email

Expert says ruling is a ‘wake-up call’ for employers

A BUSINESS executive at meat producer Kepak has been awarded €7,500 because she had to deal with out-of-hours work emails, including some after midnight, that led to her working ‘in excess of 48 hours a week’.

At the Labour Court, Kepak Convenience Foods Unlimited Co has been ordered to pay former business development executive Gráinne O’Hara €7,500 over repeated breaches of the Organisation of Working Time Act.

Solicitor Richard Grogan, an employment law expert, said yesterday that the ‘excellent, very clear and precise’ Labour Court ruling ‘will serve as a massive wake-up call to employers who expect employees to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week’.

He said: ‘The law is very clear. Employees are entitled to an uninterrupted 11-hour break between finishing work and starting work the next day.’

Mr Grogan said that employers have left themselves ‘open to claims when requiring employees to be available 24/7. It is a health and safety issue.’

Ms O’Hara’s contract of employment with the Kepak firm required her to work 40 hours per week, but she argued that she worked almost 60 hours a week, sometimes dealing with work emails after midnight.

In support of her complaint, Ms O’Hara submitted copies of emails that she sent to, and/or received from, her employers both before normal start time and after normal finish time on numerous occasions over the course of her employment.

According to the Labour Court, these emails ranged from 5pm to midnight in most cases, but instances of emails sent after midnight were included.

Ms O’Hara commenced work with the Kepak firm at its Blanchardstown facility in Dublin in July 2016 and, as part of her work, Ms O’Hara spent a considerable part of her time travelling between customer sites in Leinster.

Ms O’Hara’s employment ended on April 14, 2017.

In response to Ms O’Hara’s claims, the Kepak firm submitted that the volume of work undertaken by Ms O’Hara was in line with that undertaken by other members of staff, none of whom works in excess of the 48hour maximum set out in legislation.

Ms O’Hara’s immediate manager at the company, Colm Conneely, told the court that she had been inducted into the company through a comprehensive training programme that was designed to ensure that she discharged her duties within the statutory working week.

Mr Conneely told the court that Ms O’Hara was taught how to use the company’s reporting system in the most efficient manner, but that she chose to adopt a less efficient procedure. Mr Conneely submitted that the volume of work could not have exceeded 48 hours per week.

In its findings, however, the Labour Court noted that the Kepak firm offered no evidence to contradict her evidence in regard to the emails. The court also stated that it found Ms O’Hara to be ‘a credible witness and accepts her evidence’.

Accordingly, the court found that the Kepak firm was aware of the hours Ms O’Hara was working and took no steps to curtail them.

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‘It is a health and safety issue’