Haulage company fined for underpaying drivers

Haulage company fined for underpaying drivers


A South Mayo based haulage company who failed to pay their drivers the minimum wage no longer employ anyone and are a company in name only, last week’s sitting of Achill District Court was told.
John Munroe, Haulage Contractors Limited of The Neale, Ballinrobe pleaded guilty to breaching the National Minimum Wage Act when their pay roll was inspected by an Inspector from the National Employment Rights Authority. The court heard that the company was a company ‘in name only’ and was no longer employing anybody after getting into financial difficulties.
Barry Molloy, an Inspector with the National Employment Rights Authority said he visited the companies offices on April 28 last and examined payrolls from the previous three years. He said he identified a number of employees who was underpaid and were not paid the national minimum wage.
He said one driver received a shortfall of €99.71 per week while another had a shortfall of €77 per week and another had a shortfall of €73.32 after they were not paid the minimum wage of €8.65 per hour for the hours they worked. 
Mr Evan O’Dwyer said the company was an off spring of a sand and gravel business which had got into financial difficulty and had no assets. He said it was trading in name only to pay off borrowings from the bank and had no employees.
He said the company had allowed its drivers to bring their lorries to their own homes which he described as an act of folly because they were getting paid for the time it took to arrive at the company depot.
Judge Mary Devins fined the company €750 for each of the five summons against them.