The Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

Remedies

43.—(1) A worker may present a complaint to an industrial tribunal that the worker’s employer—

(a) has refused to permit the worker to exercise any right the worker has under—

(i) regulation 12(1) or (2), 13(1), (2) or (3), 14(1) or (4), 15 or 16;

(ii) regulation 28, in so far as it applies where regulation 12(1), 13(1) or (2) or 14(1) is modified or excluded;

(iii) regulation 29, in so far as it applies where regulation 12(1), 13(1) or (2) or 14(1) is excluded; or

(iv) regulation 30(3), 34(2) or 35(4)(b); or

(b) has failed to pay the whole or any part of any amount due to the worker under regulation 17(2) or 20(1).

(2) Subject to regulation 44, an industrial tribunal shall not consider a complaint under this regulation unless it is presented—

(a) before the end of the period of three months (or, in a case to which regulation 49(2) applies, six months) beginning with the date on which it is alleged that the exercise of the right should have been permitted (or in the case of a rest period or leave extending over more than one day, the date on which it should have been permitted to begin) or, as the case may be, the payment should have been made; or

(b) within such further period as the tribunal considers reasonable in a case where it is satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable for the complaint to be presented before the end of that period of three or, as the case may be, six months.

(3) Where an industrial tribunal finds a complaint under paragraph (1)(a) well-founded, the tribunal—

(a) shall make a declaration to that effect, and

(b) may make an award of compensation to be paid by the employer to the worker.

(4) The amount of the compensation shall be such as the tribunal considers just and equitable in all the circumstances having regard to—

(a) the employer’s default in refusing to permit the worker to exercise the right, and

(b) any loss sustained by the worker which is attributable to the matters complained of.

(5) Where on a complaint under paragraph (1)(b) an industrial tribunal finds that an employer has failed to pay a worker in accordance with regulation 17(2) or 20(1), it shall order the employer to pay to the worker the amount which it finds to be due.