{"id":631933,"date":"2026-09-22T00:38:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T00:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631933\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T00:38:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T00:38:35","slug":"start-up-ordered-to-pay-e10000-to-worker-sacked-after-complaining-about-failure-to-deduct-tax-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631933\/","title":{"rendered":"Start-up ordered to pay \u20ac10,000 to worker sacked after complaining about failure to deduct tax \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A worker sacked after complaining repeatedly about her employer\u2019s practice of not deducting PAYE or PRSI from her salary has won \u20ac10,000 for unfair dismissal. <\/p>\n

Maja Goertz, an account executive at the Dublin-headquartered educational technology start-up Educatly Ltd, told a tribunal that she was urged to resign on the basis her actions \u201cdid not align with the organisation\u2019s values\u201d when she questioned the failure to deduct tax from her pay. <\/p>\n

When she refused to quit, she told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)<\/a>, she was \u201clocked out of the computer system within an hour\u201d. <\/p>\n

Goertz worked remotely from Spain between January and July 2025 under an employment contract with the Irish arm of the company, she told the WRC. <\/p>\n

She said she was \u201cunhappy\u201d with the company\u2019s instruction to her that she \u201cdid not have to pay any tax\u201d and that her salary would be paid to her \u201cwithout any statutory deductions\u201d. <\/p>\n

Goertz told the WRC she questioned the legality of this despite her employer\u2019s assurances, and that the matter was of \u201chuge concern\u201d to her. <\/p>\n

In July 2025, Goertz said, her employer presented her with a proposed salary reduction of 60 per cent to her basic pay, and a further deduction of 40 per cent to another portion of her pay. <\/p>\n

\"\"Soaring energy costs and why \u2018we can\u2019t protect everyone from the impact of war\u2019<\/p>\n

This was also to affect her colleagues\u2019 salaries, she said in evidence. <\/p>\n

The proposed deductions would have reduced her pay to less than the National Minimum Wage, she told the WRC. <\/p>\n

She said she communicated her dissatisfaction with the pay cut plan and the taxation issues as protected disclosures, arguing they amounted to \u201crelevant wrongdoings\u201d for the purposes of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014. <\/p>\n

Her evidence was that as soon as she did so, she was accused of \u201cextreme behaviour\u201d and told she should resign. <\/p>\n

She was told her actions \u201cdid not align with the organisation\u2019s values\u201d, she added. <\/p>\n

When she refused to resign, she told the WRC, she was \u201clocked out\u201d of the company\u2019s computer system and had her employment terminated. <\/p>\n

Adjudication officer Andrew Heavey noted the respondent company\u2019s failure to attend either of two online hearings convened to hear Goertz\u2019s complaints. <\/p>\n

Heavey wrote that he was satisfied Goertz made protected disclosures concerning the taxation of her salary, noting her \u201crepeated attempts to get clarity on the issue\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am also satisfied that the way the complainant was treated by way of an immediate dismissal for raising these issues, including the unlawful pay reduction, was an act of penalisation,\u201d Heavey wrote. <\/p>\n

He directed the respondent to pay Goertz \u20ac10,000 in compensation under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977. <\/p>\n

Two further complaints by Goertz challenging the pay deduction as being both unlawful and a no-notice change to her contract were not well founded, as she was sacked before it happened, Heavey added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A worker sacked after complaining repeatedly about her employer\u2019s practice of not deducting PAYE or PRSI from her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,6465],"class_list":["post-631933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}