CPL Resources director fails in deductions claim
A director at CPL Resources who was paid €278,000 has failed in her claim that the recruitment firm unlawfully took part of her commission.
The Labour Court dismissed the claim brought by Silvana Cuesta Carpio against CPL under the Payment of Wages Act.
Ms Cuesta Carpio told the Labour Court that before she was appointed as a director in 2017 she had earned a significant amount of commission from the work she did for a particular client.
However, she said that some months after her appointment she was assigned to work with clients other than the specific client.
The Labour Court was told that Ms Cuesta Carpio earned a total of €278,000 in 2018 and €253,000 in 2017.
According to the Labour Court report on the case, Ms Cuesta Carpio claimed she was owed €239,000 for the period from April 2018 to March 2019 as a result of CPL making deductions of commission.
However, the Labour Court calculated that Ms Cuesta Carpio’s claim for unlawful deductions amounted to €83,740 as well as a part of €16,748 and a part of €20,748.
Ms Cuesta Carpio said that in May 2018 she reached an agreement with CPL to “clean all fees owed to her from previous months up to March 2018”, and a payment of €51,000 was made to her in August 2018.
In response, CPL said that no unlawful deductions took place and that wages alleged by Ms Cuesta Carpio were not properly payable to her.
CPL said the commission scheme was discretionary and the terms were specifically set out in her employment contract of employment in October 2013.
It said that Ms Cuesta Carpio’s commission was affected by her re-assignment in August 2017 which came about from operational needs of the business.
In the Labour Court’s findings, chairman Kevin Foley found that the alteration of Ms Cuesta Carpio’s commission was provided for in her contract.
Mr Foley said that as a result, the alteration of Ms Cuesta Carpio’s commission scheme could not be considered an unlawful deduction.
Ms Cuesta Carpio was appealing a ruling of the Workplace Relations Commission that had earlier dismissed her claim.
