UD1365/2012

EMPLOYMENT APPEALS TRIBUNAL

CLAIM(S) OF:                                                                                               CASE NO.

                                                                                                                        UD1365/2012

Employee

against

Employer           -               first respondent

and

Employer         -           second respondent

under

UNFAIR DISMISSALS ACTS, 1977 TO 2007

I certify that the Tribunal

(Division of Tribunal)

Chairman:   Ms. K.T. O'Mahony BL

Members:     Ms. M. Sweeney

                    Ms. H. Kelleher

heard this claim in Cork on 3 February 2014

Representation

Claimant(s):             Mr. Patrick G. Goold, J.F. Goold & Co, Solicitors,

                   South Square, Macroom, Co.Cork

Respondent(s):        No attendance by or on behalf of the respondent                    

The determination of the Tribunal was as follows:-

The claimant commenced employment with Co. A on 26 June 2007 working as a cleaner in a client’s store, which was one of a large network of stores owned by the client. In July 2010 the business was taken over by the second respondent. Later, someone from the first respondent asked her to supervise the cleaners working in fifteen of the client’s stores. She accepted this offer but did not receive any training for this new role. After a number of months in her new role as supervisor she was asked to check the passports of foreign workers but received no training for this either. One day, prior to an official check of the passports, one of the workers told her his name was not on his/ had someone else’s passport. The claimant reported this to her employer, who took the position that she had been negligent in failing to have detected this and dismissed her.

Determination:

Based on the uncontroverted evidence of the claimant, the Tribunal finds that the claimant was dismissed. As the respondent did not offer any evidence to discharge the onus of proof that rests on the employer under s.6 (6) of the Unfair Dismissal Acts, the Tribunal, applying s.6 (1) of the Acts, deems the dismissal to be unfair. Accordingly, the claim under the Acts succeeds. Having heard evidence of loss and the claimant’s lack of success in mitigating her loss, the Tribunal awards her compensation in the sum of €16,336.32 (this amount being equivalent to a year’s pay at a gross pay of €314.16 per week) under the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 to 2007.

Sealed with the Seal of the

Employment Appeals Tribunal

This   ________________________

(Sgd.) ________________________

     (CHAIRMAN)