WRC hearing abandoned after adjudicator says witness giving evidence from moving train not ‘satisfactory'
Workplace Relations Commission
(WRC) adjudicator on Monday abandoned an employment rights hearing after deciding it was not 'satisfactory' that a defence witness had dialled in from a moving train.
South East Technological University Student Union is subject to a complaint under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 by worker Kate Rellis, which was called on for hearing via videoconference before being quickly adjourned.
WRC adjudication officer Gaye Cunningham noted that union president Erin Foley had joined the call from a car and that its welfare officer, Lucy Kate Bosch, was 'on a train'.
'While we say that our hearings are otherwise than in private ... our hearings are not being held in public streets or transit. When you go off mute, I seem to be hearing other passengers in the train,' Ms Cunningham said.
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'I apologise for the noise; I'm currently travelling to Galway for work at the moment,' Ms Bosch said.
Ms Cunningham said: 'I can hear a lot of background noise. I can't continue a hearing in the circumstances.'
Ms Foley said she had not been president of the students' union during the period relevant to the complaint and that Ms Bosch had been 'mentioned as a witness in the complaint'.
'I do need her here,' she said of Ms Bosch.
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Ms Cunningham told the officers of the students' union: 'You could have applied for a postponement. If a person is not available to take part in a hearing in what I'd call a safe setting, I can't continue,' she said.
'It's not satisfactory that people are in a train where it's very noisy,' she added.
Asked to comment, the worker, Ms Rellis, said: 'I understand that it's not ideal to have members of the public in the background, I wasn't expecting that. I do agree, though I want to move forward today.'
Ms Cunningham said her 'strong feeling' was that it 'would not be satisfactory to continue'.
'You might as well be out on the main street,' she said to Ms Bosch.
'You must be in a fairly safe setting, an office setting, on the next date. I'd appreciate if the respondents would pay attention to the fact that you need to be in a reasonably formal setting. We'll resume as soon as we can,' the adjudicator said.
She adjourned the matter pending a rescheduled hearing 'as soon as possible'.
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