A charity shop worker who was paid a basic wage of €57 a week and went 13 years without a pay rise has been awarded more than €10,000 by the Labour Court.
The Sue Ryder Foundation told the court it had kept the worker's pay low in order to accommodate her applications for supplementary welfare allowance.
The foundation, which runs sheltered homes for the elderly and those who cannot cope alone, has 18 charity shops in the Republic.
A former employee, Margaret Meenagh, told the court she was hired as manager of the foundation's shop in Naas, Co Kildare, in 1990.
She was paid £45 (€57.14) per week and a fixed bonus payment of £30 (€38.09), plus an additional bonus related to the achievement of sales targets. She remained on this pay arrangement for the duration of her employment, which ended in 2003.
The foundation told the court Ms Meenagh was employed on a part-time basis and said her hours varied from 17 to 31.5 per week in 2003. Ms Meenagh claimed she worked a full-time, 40-hour week.
Counsel for the charity said managers of its other shops were paid in accordance with the National Minimum Wage Act of 2000. An exception had been made in Ms Meenagh's case in order to facilitate her claims for supplementary welfare allowance. This had been at her request, counsel said.
The court said it was satisfied, having examined the detail supplied by both parties, that Ms Meenagh worked an average of 31 hours a week.
