An award of more than €140,000 made by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) to a chef who was underpaid and mistreated by a Dublin restaurant is expected to receive most, or all, of the money from the State after the businesses was put into liquidation on Tuesday.
Sharanjeet Kaur was awarded a total of €143,268 for a long list labour law breaches after working at the Bombay House restaurant in Skerries, Co Dublin for more than a year at what was calculated to be an hourly rate of €4.46 per hour.
The WRC was told her family had paid €17,000 in cash to Bhappa Singh, a director of the company, Bombay Bhappa, which operated the restaurant to cover the cost of securing an employment permit.
Ms Kaur, who left a job in Malaysia to take up the job, was promised a “life changing experience for her and her children,” but was instead sexually harassed, the WRC heard, by a number of co-workers in shared accommodation and paid far less than anticipated, about €200 per week.
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In a widely reported decision last April, the WRC, where Ms Kaur, an Indian national, was represented by the Migrants Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI), awarded her €60,000 under the Employment Equality Act, €30,000 for unfair dismissal, €35,000 in compensation and €7,248 under National Minimum Wage legislation with the balance coming under a number of other headings.
The adjudication officer described Ms Kaur’s ordeal as “a distressing catalogue of discrimination, harassment and sexual harassment which she suffered on [an] almost daily basis for the entirety of her employment”.
The money was not paid by the business in months after the case concluded, however, and on Tuesday Declan Clancy of Status Corporate Advisory was appointed as liquidator to Bombay Bhappa Ltd at a meeting of the company’s creditors called for the purpose.
Mr Clancy said he did not expect there to be significant funds to meet address the company’s debts and the amount owed to Ms Kaur would be referred to the State’s Insolvency Payment Scheme. This is a fund administered by the Department of Social Protection – in conjunction with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment – and intended to cover payments like holiday pay, wage arrears and minimum notice due to workers where an employer has gone out of business.
The scheme also covers unpaid WRC awards and Mr Clancy said he would co-operate with the MRCI in its efforts to lodge a claim on Ms Kaur’s behalf.
There are certain caps on categories of payment, primarily with regard to back pay, but Mr Clancy said that while he had not into the detail of the award, he expected that Ms Kaur would receive the majority or all of her award from the scheme in the coming months.
MRCI’s Bill Abom said the organisation was “happy that Sharanjeet may soon receive some redress for the ordeal she has been through. She’s been very brave coming forward in a very difficult and risky situation. We hope her actions will encourage other workers in similar situations of exploitation to come forward and seek justice”.
He added: “There needs to be more severe penalties against unscrupulous employers who treat workers in this way otherwise there is no deterrent and they will continue to exploit with impunity.”
