Complainant

Respondent

Anonymised Parties

A Security Officer.

A Security Services Company.

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 8 of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977

CA-00028609-001

22/05/2019

The Complainant says, in his complaint form, that he was unfairly dismissed by the Respondent.

The Complainanty, despite being notified of the hearing date and time, failed to appear.

The Complainant’s case, as presented in his complaint form, is that he was unfairly dismissed contrary to the terms of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977.

The Complainant did not appear to give evidence.

The Respondent presented a written submission on the day of the case and said that they had sent this submission to the Complainant on the previous evening.

The Respondent was required to file a response on the basis that they are required to prove that the dismissal was not unfair.

They said that on the 6th December 2018 the Complainant emailed his manager advising that he had an emergency in his home country, Pakistan, and as a result would not be at work on that day or for an indefinite future period. They say that he was aware that absence from work at this time of year, in particular, was prohibited, given the nature of the business and the service they provide.

They said that if the Complainant did not respond to them and attend meetings they had proposed they would not be in a position to hold his job open to him. They say he failed to attend 3 scheduled meetings in the month of December 2018.

They say that they had written to him on the 21st December 2018 advising him that because he had not attended work or responded to their efforts to meet him they had no choice but to dismiss him. They did dismiss him and advised him of his right to appeal this decision.

They say that the Complainant contacted them on the 4th February 2019 requesting the reasons why his employment was terminated. They say also that they advised him that they would allow him to appeal the decision within a five-day period from February 4th 2019.

They say that the Complainant did not appeal the dismissal decision through their internal procedures for this purpose, but lodged his complaint with the WRC on the 22nd May 2019.

They contend that the Complainant was not unfairly dismissed and that he did not invoke the internal company appeal process. They say that it is established employment case law that the failure of a Complainant to exhaust all internal procedures without justifiable reason means that a claim under Unfair Dismissal must fail. In this they cite the EAT decision in Pungor – v – MBCC Foods Ltd (UD584/2015) where they say the tribunal placed an obligation on a claimant to exhaust all internal procedures, and that failure by the claimant to do this, without justifiable reason, must cause the claim under the Unfair Dismissals Act, to fail.

I find that the Respondent presented a compelling case in favour of their contention that the Complainant was not unfairly dismissed

Because the Complainant did not appear to give contrary evidence, I can only accept the evidence presented at the hearing.

I find that the complaint fails.