Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

A Sales Executive

A Food Supplement Company

Act

Dispute

Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under the Industrial Relations Acts

CA-00020566-001

16/07/2018

The worker was employed by the respondent as an area sales executive on the 5th of February 2018, and she was dismissed on the 29th June 2018. She worked 45 hours per week and she was paid €3271 gross per month. She is claiming that she was unfairly dismissed, and she is seeking compensation.

The worker said that she started in her sales role on the 12th February after 2 days training. She was cold calling customers to sell the company’s range of products. She had a one to one meeting with the employer around the end of March and she got positive feedback regarding her performance including sales. The company was also promoting online sales. There were some problems with the level of stock and there were customers issues with orders and deliveries which the worker raised with the employer, but she did not get a response. She had an informal meeting at the end of April to discuss these problems and she was promised more support. She was then asked to do telesales which she did.   After a number of weeks, she was asked to revert back to her role of calling to customers. On the 18th June, the worker’s daughter was sick, and she informed the employer, who was in Spain on holidays, that she could not work until she was better. She said that she was trying to get some work done while she was at home, and she made some work calls on the company telephone.   The owner contacted her insinuating she wasn’t working while she was at home and telling her that she needed to talk to her on her return.

The worker said that she was called to a meeting with the owner on the 29th June 2018 and informed that her that she had issues with her performance, the job was not working out and that she could not afford to keep her in the company any longer. She was told she was being dismissed immediately and ask to leave the company car at the office and to find her own way home. The worker said that she was stranded at the office in Rathcoole for 4 hours before her brother could come to collect her and bring her home to her home in Tipperary.

The worker said that she emailed the owner on the following Monday pointing out that it was unfair that she had not been made aware that the meeting was a disciplinary meeting. She asked for a letter confirming her dismissal. In response the worker was informed that the dismissal was for reasons of redundancy and she was paid a week’s notice. The complainant said that another employee was retained carrying on the duties she performed.

The accountant for the employer attended the hearing and said that the worker was not dismissed because of her performance. He said that her position was redundant. He said that selling the products to the retail trade is being wound down since the dismissal and the company is concentrating on online sales. The employer decided to concentrate on on-line sales and the workers job as a sales executive was no longer required. He advised the employer that it was necessary to make her redundant.

He accepted that the meeting with the worker was handled very poorly by the employer and he accepted that the dismissal should not have been carried out in such a manner.

I am of the view that the procedures adopted by the employer at the dismissal meeting were totally unfair. She was summarily dismissed at the meeting for poor performance and subsequently she was told the dismissal was for reasons of redundancy. The worker received no warnings about her performance or that her employment was in jeopardy, nor was she given a chance to improve. In circumstances, where a worker is being dismissed for whatever reason, there is an obligation on an employer to apply fair procedures and natural justice. The employer, who carried out the dismissal did not attend the hearing, but I note that the accountant accepted that the dismissal was poorly handled.

Having regard to all the circumstance, I have concluded that the worker was treated unfairly in the way her employment was terminated and was unfairly dismissed.

I recommend that the employer pay the worker compensation in the amount of €3,000 in full and final settlement of the claim.

Industrial Relations Act, Section 13, Unfair Dismissal complaint.