LCR22235

1.Lack of Fair Procedures.

BACKGROUND:

2.The case concerns a lack of fair procedures.

The Worker commenced working with the Employer in 1999. In March 2018 he was called to a meeting in which he was accused of bullying a colleague, an accusation he rejected.

On the 23 August 2019, the Worker referred the dispute to the Labour Court 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 the 24 July 2020. The Employer did not attend the hearing.


WORKER'S ARGUMENTS:

3. 1. There was no proper investigation carried out into the allegation. The Managing Director put a poster in the canteen to publicise that allegations of bullying were made and accepted.

2. On the 28th January 2019 the Worker was called to another meeting. This meeting lacked all or any semblance of fair procedure and the outcome of this meeting was predetermined by the Employer. The Employer furnished a letter that purported to represent a “first warning letter”. However, this letter predated the actual meeting by some four days.

3. When the Worker objected to the process and the warning, work and overtime was systematically withdrawn from him. This culminated with the Employer moving the Worker to a new role.

RECOMMENDATION:

The representative of the Worker submitted to the Court that the process that the Employer had invoked in respect of a complaint against the Worker had not complied with the Employer’s own grievance and disciplinary procedure. It was also his submission that the process followed did not comply with S.I. No. 146/2000 Code of Practise on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures and that the worker was denied fair procedure. The Worker is seeking to have the verbal warning of the 28^thSeptember 2018 and the written warning of the 24^thJanuary 2019 withdrawn. Reference was also made to a poster erected in the canteen which the Court now understands has been taken down.

The Employer did not attend the hearing.

The Court having heard the submissions of the Worker recommends that the verbal warning of the 28^thSeptember 2018 and the written warning of the 24^thJanuary 2019 be removed from the Workers file as it would appear that the procedure followed did not comply with the Code of Practise (S.I. No. 146/2000.

The Court so Recommends.

	Signed on behalf of the Labour Court
	Louise O'Donnell
CR	______________________
28 July, 2020.	Deputy Chairman