AN equestrian enterprise has been ordered to pay a stable worker more than €4,500 for employment rights breaches by the Workplace Relations Commission.

As reported in The Irish Times, Valentine Jevardat de Fombelle made statutory complaints against TG Sporthorses Ltd, registered to Cuffestown, Co Sligo, under the National Minimum Wage Act 2000, the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 and the Payment of Wages Act 1991.

Jevardat de Fombelle told the Tribunal that she worked for TG Sporthorses from April to August last year, on a stated wage of €1,200 every four weeks. She said she regularly worked 60-hour weeks, and that she had been paid 12 weeks wages for 13 weeks work, and that she had been left €2,815 short in wages. She looked for her wage slips to calculate her hourly rate, but did not receive them. Her complaints were uncontested as TG Sporthorses did not attend the hearing.

Adjudication officer Valerie Murtagh directed TG Sporthorses to pay Jevardat de Fombelle €2,815 under the Payment of Wages Act, as well as €500 in compensation for a breach of the National Minimum Wage Act. Under the Organsiation of Working Time Act, Murtagh also awarded Jevardat de Fombelle a further €500 in compensation for excessive working hours and €750 for failure to pay a Sunday premium. The total awarded to Jevardat de Fombelle was €4,565.