Latest news with #workplacerelations
Irish Times
20-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Karen's Diner ordered to pay former employee unpaid tips
An ex-employee of theme restaurant Karen's Diner has secured a Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ruling that she is due hundreds of euro in unpaid tips, in the third such decision against the chain. The international theme restaurant chain, which is marketed an interactive dining experience with 'rude service as part of the performance', opened its doors on O'Connell Street, Dublin in 2024. The worker, Carenin Rosa De Oliveira, quit her job at Karen's Diner after going six months without receiving her share of the money, which she was meant to receive according to her ex-employer's tipping policy, she told the WRC. It seemed to her that the 'non-payment of the monies owed was accumulating with no end in sight', she added. READ MORE The worker's further evidence was that there was 'a general unease among staff concerning the non-distribution of tips and gratuities and service charges'. Her employer 'knew that there was a problem, but kept putting off making any payment', she added. [ Karen's Diner: 'Sit down and shut up!' one waiter shouts as I eat my flavourless burger Opens in new window ] Roberta Urbon, of human resources consultancy Peninsula Business Services, appeared for the restaurant. Her submission was that the business 'concedes there are some monies owed', the tribunal recorded. Adjudication officer Penelope McGrath wrote in her decision that the respondent had failed to provide evidence on how the money owed to Ms Rosa De Oliveira ought to be calculated and therefore had not 'repudiated' the worker's claims. Ms McGrath noted the complainant had told her she 'could not give an exact figure' and had 'erred on the side of modesty' in bringing her claim for that reason. 'I accept that the complainant, who gave very compelling evidence, is only looking for what she says ought to have been paid to her in the course of her employment,' the adjudicator added. She upheld three separate complaints by Ms Rosa de Oliveira under the Payment of Wages Act, awarding her a total of €796 for the breaches. In decisions issued in March and April this year, the restaurant's management was directed to pay over €1,200 to two other staff on foot of similar complaints. It had not appeared before the tribunal in response to either of the previous claims. The decision published on Tuesday in favour of Ms Rosa De Oliveira brings the total sum awarded to former staff of the restaurant to €2,014. Another former employee, Maria Wilkinson, said in evidence to the tribunal that was told the service charge paid by customers would be 'divided between all employees' and that she had expected that to be worth €1,000 to €2,000. However, she said she never got any share of that. The adjudicator in that case concluded that there were 'significant tips' being generated by the restaurant but that 'whatever became of the tips is not clear except to the extent that neither the complainant nor her co-workers received any of them'. He awarded Ms Wilkinson €1,018.40, four weeks' wages, for a 'breach of her rights' under the Payment of Wages Act. Sarah Butler, a member of floor staff who worked at the restaurant from January to March 2024, secured €200 in compensation for the non-payment of cash tips in her final week of employment. Ms Butler had also sought compensation for electronic tips she said were not paid to her going back to the start of last year, but that aspect of her complaint was ruled out of time.
RNZ News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Midday Report Essentials for Thursday 15 May 2025
Pacific children 6 minutes ago In today's episode, the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden has refused to have regular meetings with the Council of Trade Unions and has ruled out undoing the Pay Equity Changes, Labour is defending not condemning a newspaper column about pay equity which used the c-word in reference to female ministers, a new report has revealed New Zealand has the highest suicide rate for children out of the world's wealthy countries, at a rate of almost three times higher than the average, the C-Word has taken up a lot of attention in the last 24 hours after the workplace relations minister Brooke van Velden enunciated in Parliaments debating chamber, and a year on from the New Caledonia deadly riots the country faces deep division over the territory's political future.
RNZ News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Brooke van Velden meets with Council of Trade Unions after pay equity changes
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone The Council of Trade Unions is meeting with Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden on Thursday morning, hot on the heels of pay equity changes passing under urgency last week. The half-hour meeting from 10.15am is the minister's first with the union in about a year, despite her predecessors typically booking monthly catch-ups . It also coincides with an event hosted by Labour and the Greens to bring union members to Parliament to hear from them about the effects of the pay equity changes. CTU national secretary Melissa Ansell-Bridges told RNZ the minister's approach to the relationship was unprecedented, but they hoped to get straight into the substantive issues. "This is really an opportunity to, I suppose, begin some of those conversations that we haven't been able to have with her to date. Obviously top of the agenda is going to be pay equity and we're going to be conveying to Brooke how we think the changes that they have made are absolutely heading in the wrong direction. "We'll be wanting to get into the substantive issues, we have a lot of questions for Brooke about the changes she has made firstly to pay equity but also there's a range of other issues we haven't been able to engage with her about as well." Those other matters included calls for a ban on engineered stone, the government's policy of banning partial strikes, and other health and safety policies. She said they would be asking for the 33 in-progress claims that were scrapped last week to be restored, and the changes to the Act to be reversed. Whether that would be possible was up to the government, she said. "What they have done is absolutely atrocious and really needs to be reversed as soon as possible ... the changes that they have made to the Act undoubtedly make it harder to settle claims, and to settle claims that actually reflect the work that women do in those female-dominated industries. "We are going to be making sure that workers' voices are heard in that meeting, and that Brooke van Velden understands the depth of feeling about the changes." Asked about the lack of meetings, she said van Velden had shown she was not interested in what working people had to say about the changes she wanted to make. Whether the minister would be receptive was unclear. "I guess we'll see." Ansell-Bridges helped facilitate the earlier event for opposition MPs and media to hear from union members about the equity changes, which were passed within a couple of days of being announced. Labour and Green MPs had planned the event - held in Labour's larger caucus room - last week, inviting a handful of women and their families. Decrying a newspaper opinion article in Parliament which criticised female MPs for backing the legislation, van Velden quoted from it - using the c-word in Parliament for the first time. Labour's spokesperson for Women Jan Tinetti addressed that at the start of the meeting on Thursday, saying there had been some "deliberate distractions" from the government over the reaction to its move. She said she was frustrated and angry about the legislative changes and would continue to fight them. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
