EMPLOYMENT APPEALS TRIBUNAL
APPEAL(S) OF: CASE NO.
Occipital Limited T/A Interaction
(appellant) UD1556/2014
against the recommendation of the Rights Commissioner in the case of:
Nicole Wulf
(respondent)
under
UNFAIR DISMISSALS ACTS 1977 TO 2007
I certify that the Tribunal
(Division of Tribunal)
Chairman: Mr J. Revington S.C.
Members: Mr. B. Kealy
Mr D. Thomas
heard this appeal at Dublin on 15th December 2015
Representation:
_______________
Appellant(s) : Mr. Brian Foley B.L. instructed by DWF, 5 George's Dock, IFSC, Dublin 1
Respondent(s) : In person
The determination of the Tribunal was as follows:
This case came before the Tribunal by way of an employer appeal of a Rights Commissioner recommendation under the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 to 2007, reference r-143416-ud-14/SR.
For clarification purposes the appellant will be referred to as employer and the respondent as employee.
The employer confirmed the correct name of the company as listed above.
The employer operates a call centre and the employee commenced her employment in January 2013 working with the German team as a telesales executive. When company T terminated their contract on 28th February 2014, eighteen staff were affected. The Operations Manager for the employer told the Tribunal that eight staff members were re-located within the company but as there was no suitable alternate positon for this employee, she was made redundant.
The employee was fluent in German and Spanish but no roles existed requiring these languages. The employee could not be considered for English language vacancies as she did not have the standard of English required for telesales work. The Operations Manager stated that no application was made by the employee for any other role within the company.
The Sales Manager, CP, gave evidence and stated that he longer works for the employer. He was a Sales Manager when he was employed there. He met each member of staff individually prior to redundancies. CP stated that he did not receive any application from the employee in relation to applying for other positions with the company and even if he had, the employee would not have been appointed to an English role. He also stated that the employee did not have the required standard of English for an English language role. If there had been a German language vacancy, the employee would have been appointed as she was an excellent employee.
The employee told the Tribunal that she had forwarded her application for other language vacancies to JO’H (Team Leader) for proof reading and forwarding on to the employer. She did not have any evidence of her application as old e-mails could not be accessed because her previous e-mail address with Company T no longer existed. She did not ask CP about other positions when she met with him, as she thought she was too expensive and would not be considered.
JO’H gave evidence on behalf of the employee and told the Tribunal that he was also made redundant by the employer. He stated that the employee had applied for German/Spanish and English roles by e-mail through him and that he had forwarded it on to the employer. He was formerly the employee’s Team Leader.
Determination
The employee accepted that due to a loss of contract her position was made redundant. The claimant was bona fide made redundant and there was not a suitable English/German/Spanish speaking role for her.
Of the three languages, the only language in which there was a vacancy was English.
The Tribunal accepts the company’s position that her English language is not of a suitable standard and therefore the Tribunal overturns the Rights Commissioner’s decision.
Sealed with the Seal of the
Employment Appeals Tribunal
This ________________________
(Sgd.) ________________________
(CHAIRMAN)