Foreign Company with Irish Bank Account

[FiveFingers]

Hi,

My employer is foreign. There's only 3 Irish employees. They have an Irish bank account through which we get paid. They have no offices in Ireland and we are all remote employees.

I've recently discovered that my employer has let their company registration status lapse (confirmed by the CRO). They had registered as a "place of business". With the change in the Companies Act 2014, they never reregistered. So, legally, they don't exist in Ireland. Is the operation of their bank account contingent on them having a company status in Ireland? The CRO said that the bank would freeze their funds if they knew this.

The reason I ask is that my employer has let me go after 5.5 years of service and they're refusing to acknowledge that it's a redundancy situation, thereby denying me statutory redundancy. I can't lodge a complaint with the Workplace Relations Commission because they have no legal status here in Ireland. Basically, they're totally screwing me and I want to figure out a way to "encourage" them to do the right thing. I rang the Financial Services Ombudsman, they referred me to Consumer Protection. They've referred me to the Central Bank. The person I talked to at the Central Bank hadn't a clue and advised me to submit a written enquiry. So, now I'm waiting to hear back from them. In the meantime, I just wondered if anyone on here had the answer to my question.

Thanks,
FiveFingers

 

[dublin66]

My understanding is that the place of business category was abolished under the Companies Act 2014 and this may be reason for why it isn't there anymore.

I'm not an employment solicitor but it would seem a little unusual to me that you can't lodge a compliant against a foreign employer. Why don't you take the vat number of your former employer and put it in here http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/ and it will tell you the precise address and name of your employing entity.

 

[FiveFingers]

My understanding is that the place of business category was abolished under the Companies Act 2014 and this may be reason for why it isn't there anymore.

I'm not an employment solicitor but it would seem a little unusual to me that you can't lodge a compliant against a foreign employer. Why don't you take the vat number of your former employer and put it in here http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/ and it will tell you the precise address and name of your employing entity.

I've gone ahead and lodged the complaint with the WRC using the information available to me, even though I can't enforce any outcomes that are favourable to me. I tried that website and it doesn't recognise the VAT number that appears on my payslip. However, I rang Revenue and they said the VAT number was still valid. So, I'm not sure if there's also a problem there.