Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

{A Service Co-ordinator}

{A Catering Company}

Representatives

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

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

CA-00025208-001

23/01/2019

The Worker was a service co-ordinator with the Respondent from 4th April 2018 to 23rd November 2018. He was dismissed for failing to carry out his duties to the standard required.

The Worker was providing support to 16 employees. The turnover of staff was high. He did not receive any training. He followed the processes which his co worker used. He was overworked. Sales representatives were ringing and customers complaining. His co-worker left.

He was given the role of Service Co-ordinator, and was on the desk by himself for 2 weeks. He was then told by a manager he was not following process and shown how to order parts after 7 months. There were portals for different manufacturers. The Worker did not know this. He explained the issues to the managers but action was not taken. The volume of calls was large. He did not receive backup from management when he tried to manage the engineers who undermined him. He found this very stressful and worked long hours and some Saturdays to try to keep on top of the work.

There was an atmosphere of anger and intimidation. The engineers tried to prioritise their work by getting customers to complain. He says he suffered mental health issues with anxiety, confidence, and borderline depression as a result.

Other staff were recruited and things began to improve. The manager said enough parts and labour had not been charged out so one of the staff would have to go. In July 2018 he was moved to operations administrator to manage the desk. On 16th August 2018, the Worker had his first review. He was given 4 main tasks. He was told he worked well with staff and was performing well, although still developing in the role. Regular desk reviews only began at the end of August 2019. In September himself and his colleague were informed the desk was not working efficiently. This primarily related to his colleague’s area. In October he was given 9 main tasks. There were mixed messages to the Worker who covered other colleague’s holidays. He was not able to close off tasks. His colleague was not ordering parts and not following process. He feared he would be blamed. He had weekly catch up meetings with the manager at this time.

In November 2018 he was informed there had been improvement in desk efficiency.

On 23rd November 2018 he was dismissed unfairly. This was a surprise. He was not told his work was not up to standard nor was there a formal process for dismissal. The company did not comply with SI 146 of 2000 Code of Practice on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures. The Managing Director authorised the Worker’s dismissal and heard his appeal. This is a breach of fair procedures, and the company failed to comply with their own policy.

There was no appearance by the Respondent at the hearing.

I have heard the Worker’s submissions and considered the documents submitted.

The Worker was employed on 4th April 2018. He had his first review in August 2018. This says he is developing/underperforming. A development plan was put in place and weekly monitoring. In October 2018 the tasks of staff were set out.

There is no evidence of any notification by the Company to the Worker that his performance was under review, or that he was subject to performance management or a disciplinary process. Fair procedures require that if the performance of an employee is unsatisfactory, a Worker is notified about the applicable process and his obligations. This allows the Worker time to try to address gaps and perform at the level required. The Company did not comply with its own performance management procedures.

The Worker says he was not notified formally that his performance was below standard and the implications of this, although there was monitoring of his performance. He was not in a formal disciplinary process or performance review process.

I find the dismissal of the Worker is unfair on procedural grounds and recommend payment of 2 months financial loss of 5,833.34.

I find the dismissal of the Worker is unfair on procedural grounds and recommend payment of 2 months financial loss of 5,833.34.

Procedural unfair dismissal, fair procedures not applied, employee on probation