FULL RECOMMENDATION
SECTION 20(1), INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT, 1969 PARTIES : PAUL DOYLE HIRE SERVICES (REPRESENTED BY PENINSULA) - AND - MICHAEL SCULLY DIVISION : Chairman: Mr Haugh Employer Member: Ms Doyle Worker Member: Ms O'Donnell |
1. Various Issues
BACKGROUND:
2. This dispute concerns the Worker's dismissal claim. The Worker referred this case to the Labour Court on 5th July, 2016, in accordance with Section 20(1) of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969, and agreed to be bound by the Court's Recommendation. A Labour Court hearing took place on 25th October, 2016. The Employer did not attend attend the Hearing.
WORKER'S ARGUMENTS:
3. 1. The Worker was an outstanding employee who never missed a shift or was late for work.
2. The Worker filled in for shifts whenever asked and covered any shifts that were short.
RECOMMENDATION:
The Worker was employed by the Respondent pursuant to a contract of employment dated 28 September 2015. He was assigned by the Respondent from that date until the date of his dismissal on 30 January 2016 to work for one of the waste management companies that trade under the name ‘Greenstar’.
Neither the Respondent nor the entity to which the Respondent assigned the Worker attended at the hearing before the Labour Court. The Worker’s uncontested version of events is that, during the entire period he was assigned to Greenstar, both his attendance and his performance were exemplary. On 29 January 2016, the Worker received a telephone call from one of the Respondent’s managers who wished to arrange a face-to-face meeting with him on Saturday 30 January 2016. During the Worker’s shift on 29 January, he met a colleague – also assigned by the Respondent to Greenstar – who told him that his name had not been included on the roster for the following week. The following day, the Worker received a second telephone call from the Respondent’s manager who dismissed him during that call. The only explanation offered by the manager was that the Respondent had received “new information” about the Worker. The manager did not clarify who the source of that information was or what the information related to. The Respondent’s decision to dismiss the Worker with effect from 30 January 2016 was subsequently confirmed by letter dated 2 February 2016 and signed by the manager with whom the Worker had spoken by telephone on the previous Saturday.
The letter stated, inter alia, as follows:
Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
Alan Haugh
2nd December, 2016______________________
CO'RDeputy Chairman
NOTE
Enquiries concerning this Recommendation should be addressed to Clodagh O'Reilly, Court Secretary.