Worker travelled widely in his job and had received ‘time away from base’ payments
He said the company recognised this in May 2013 by providing them with new terms and conditions of employment, including a “time away from base” allowance comprised of duty pay and an overnight allowance.
The new contract was “silent on the matter of the time away from base allowance”, but Mr McNamara’s line manager later confirmed that it was “being removed” and replaced with a new policy to pay expenses for meals, accommodation and transport from March 2019 onward. DHL, which was represented by Ibec, said the employer was “not aware of the existence of any such document” before it appeared in Mr McNamara’s legal submissions to the tribunal and that the complainant had never previously provided it.
Mr McNamara was represented by McInnes Dunne Solicitors, which argued there was “no link whatsoever” between the duty pay and expenses, as the company had never sought “any vouching documentation or receipts” and that the duty pay allowance part had to be treated as wages. The adjudicating officer in the case, Aideen Collard, wrote that there was no factual dispute in the case and that the case would be decided on two main points of law – whether the payments were contractually due to Mr McNamara, and whether they amounted to wages, which were under the WRC’s jurisdiction, or expenses, which were not.
“The fact that the [allowance] had been untaxed does not assist one way or the other and is a matter for Revenue,” she added.
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