Help!! Employment rights!!

T

thornley

Guest
Hi, I hope this is the right forum. My situation in a huge nutshell is this

I was employed for the guts of ten years in this particular construction company. My employer was as dodgy as they come rarely did we get payslips, no contract of employment in place and avoided paying the employee's pension contributions.
In August '08 I was involved in a car accident on way to work which literally put me on my back for 6 months im still out due to my injuries. Up until February '09 I had been chasing my Employer for holiday pay owed and for mortgage insurance forms to be filled out but was constantly fobbed off. March arrives and I am informed by a co-worker that he and the others have been made redundant.Alarm bells are ringing so i try again to contact my employer but again no luck.Im pretty angry at this stage so i go to my local citizens information office to get help, I'm put in touch with a local councillor who eventually got my employer on the phone and was told that he would sort me out with everything P45, P60, redundancy etc. A month passes, nothing.
Angrier still i called into another Citizens information centre who sent him some letters requesting my employer to inform them of his status and that one of his employee's is fairly miffed!! Again nothing for i months until last week the citizen info. officer rang me to tell me that my employer had informed him that he had heard nothing from me since my accident and had assumed i left the company, also that i never sent him sick certs!!
The citizens info. officer said that i would'nt have much of a case due to the fact that i did'nt send my employer sick certs. My employer never paid sick leave in the decade that i worked for him i wouldnt know what a sick cert was if i saw one!! Surely this guy cant get away with what he's doing to me.
Sorry for the spiel but im very frustrated with this situation any help or advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Thornley
 
did you update your employer on a regular basis through certs and phone calls about your health status? surely phone calls can be tracked and doctor can reprint the certs (notes) he has on file to prove they were given. if you didn't do that...then you do have a problem but i would be very angry too considering your employer wasn't upfront from the start. did you claim social welfare while on sick leave?

there might be special conditions for the construction industry - so, check NERA out [broken link removed]
 
thanks
yes i was in regular contact with employer, but no certs, i still have a couple of texts on my phone from him asking how i was doing etc and the foreman is a mate. I have been claiming injury benefit from the week of the accident which involves me getting checked by doc every couple of weeks getting a medical cert and then handing that to social welfare. if i had of known about a cert to send to my employer then of course i would have.
 
You say you were claiming Injury Benefit. Does this mean that the accident occcurred in the course of your work (i.e Occupational Injury Benefit as opposed to Illness Benefit). There is a huge difference, given your issue with the employer.

Your employer is obliged by law to give you payslips, pay PRSI, deduct PRSI from you, tax, etc.. If he didn't do all these, then you should report him to Revenue and Social Welfare.
 
Have a look at [broken link removed] ,you should be able to make a complaint about your employer.
 
Welfarite said:
You say you were claiming Injury Benefit. Does this mean that the accident occcurred in the course of your work (i.e Occupational Injury Benefit as opposed to Illness Benefit). There is a huge difference, given your issue with the employer.
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yes i was on injury benefit i think for the first six months and that has changed to illness benefit, does this help me in some way??
 
The questions you are raising come down to the following. You had a road traffic accident while driving to work. Under the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 the accident is considered to be an occupational accident once it involved an uninterrupted journey. An uninterrupted journey is interpreted as meaning that were going to work and in doing so you did not disrupt that journey like going shopping. You say you are presently claiming illness benefit. Check with the Dept whether you were claiming occupational injuries for the first six months or whether it was illness benefit that you were claiming? You should have being claiming occupational injuries benefit and there are secondary benefits to having this classified as an occupational accident which I will get back to later.

You say you did not receive wage slips. As Welfarite said you have the right receive wage slips which show your pay and deductions including tax, PRSI and other deductions made. When a person leaves employment that employer has to issue the employee with a P45. You say the employer has stated that he believed that you had left employment since he has not heard from you and that you had not submitted any sick certificates – that is a non-runner as far as I can see. If this employer honestly believed that you had left his employment, why has he not issued you with a P45 at the exact time he formed that opinion – to date he has not even done this. If an employer refuses to issue an employee with a P45, this is a matter that should be brought to the attention of Revenue.

The employer did have the right to receive sick cert’s and you admit that you had not supplied him with any sick certs – while a honest mistake on your part he is right. The employer was obviously aware of your illness and on your side you have a number of texts from him supporting this argument. On your side is that the employer has not questioned the existence of nature of your illness that that as far as I know he has not asked you to submit any sick cert or at any time did he ask for you to get examined by an occupational health physician. You do not give the certification of incapacity form that you were getting your GP to complete for the DSFA to the employer. A doctor would give a general certificate to a patient for their employer saying you were unfit for work, detailing the clinical reason of illness and duration of incapacity.

 As you were involved in a RTA while on your way to work and this resulted in you being off work for more than three day’s due to injuries received the employer had a responsibility to notify the Health & Safety Authority of this occupational accident. You can check whether this employer made any such notification by contacting the HSA directly. It constitutes a statutory breach of the employer failed to notify the HSA of this accident.

 If you are claiming Illness Benefit and not Occupational Injuries Benefit (which is the correct benefit that you should have been claiming from 2008) you need to clarify how you get this correctly classified by the DSFA as an occupational accident… maybe Welfarite can direct you on how this can be done – check with the occupational injuries section of the Dept first to clarify whether it was occupational injuries benefit that you were claiming since first claim. If it wasn’t occupational injuries benefit - the Department may be reluctant to re-classify this as an occupational accident – as this will have knock-on implications in relation to Departmental expenditure. Generally, on the first certification of incapacity for occupational injuries there is a section for the employer to sign declaring the accident – and this may be a problem that you may face. But I’d persist in getting this correctly re-classified – it is in your interest. As an occupational accident you have the right to other social welfare benefits. Under the provisions of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 these include;

Disablement benefit pension (calculated on the percentage based on the affects that your injury has had on you when compared to a person of same age, qualifications etc)
 Under Section 94 of the Act refund of costs of rehabilitation
Under Section 86 of the Act a full refund of all medical care expenses that you incur as a result of this accident if the care received is not met under the Health Acts. This fees that you are entitled to receive a full refund on is GP, Pharmaceutical, appliances, and expenses involving travel to and from all places of treatment from taxi and bus fees and using a car travel a allowance that is calculated on mileage, parking and toll bridge fees, and any other care received that is received by you on the prescription of a registered practitioner.
 
Annet,

I only ask moreso for my own curiousity but how can somebody driving to work be classed as an occupational accident? From an insurance perspective, it wouldn't be considered a claim for an employers liability policy as the OP was driving on his own time to work, his employer didnt instruct as to his mode of transport or have control over it.
 
peteb said:
Annet,

I only ask moreso for my own curiousity but how can somebody driving to work be classed as an occupational accident? From an insurance perspective, it wouldn't be considered a claim for an employers liability policy as the OP was driving on his own time to work, his employer didnt instruct as to his mode of transport or have control over it.
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Hi Peteb

Its under the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act and is considered as such by the DSFA when one is claiming occupational injuries benefit as the person was on their way to work. The journey has to be uninterrupted. Its not considered to be an occupational accident however when journeying from work though! This relates to social welfare claims, health and safety and social welfare law but you do raise an important issue in relation to the insurance industry and employers liability.
 
Forgot to say that it only relates to when your mode of transport is driving to work - funny as it seems if you get a bus, cycle or walk and you are involved in a RTA involving a car and happen to be injured its not considered to be an occupational accident.
 
thornley said:
i go to my local citizens information office to get help, I'm put in touch with a local councillor who eventually got my employer on the phone and was told that he would sort me out with everything P45, P60, redundancy etc.
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Can I just clarify - are you saying that the Citizens Information Centre put you onto a local politician?
 
That seems very unorthodox to me, especially on an employment issue, where local councillors have no role or responsibilities.
 
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