ADJUDICATION OFFICER DECISION

Adjudication Reference: ADJ-00028631

Parties:

	Complainant	Respondent
Parties	Ralph Aderko Kodjo.wayo	Microsoft Ireland Msft

Representatives

none

MP Guinness B.L instructed by Eversheds Sutherland

Complaint:

Act	Complaint Reference No.	Date of Receipt
Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 8 of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977	CA-00037534-001	17/06/2020

Date of Adjudication Hearing: 08/04/2021

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Pat Brady

Procedure:

In accordance with Section 8 of the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 - 2015,following the referral of the complaint to me by the Director General, I inquired into the complaint and gave the parties an opportunity to be heard by me and to present to me any evidence relevant to the complaint.

Summary of Complainant’s Case:

The complainant did not attend the hearing.

Summary of Respondent’s Case:

The respondent was in attendance for the hearing.

Findings and Conclusions:

This was an online hearing for which the complainant failed to log in. No explanation was received for his failure to do so.

He had consented to receiving correspondence by email (on November 4th, 2020) and had made submissions in relation to his complaint five days later.

The complaint was initially scheduled for a regular hearing in February but was postponed due to public health restrictions.

On April 4th, 2021 he complained that he had not received the ‘invitation’ to the hearing and he was advised that he had been sent notice of the hearing on February 27th. The complainant was probably referring to not having received the Webex link, which he was told would issue shortly.

So, I am satisfied that he was on notice of the hearing.

The hearing was deferred for some twenty minutes to allow the complainant to join but he did not do so.

Accordingly, I proceed to a decision in the matter which is that the complaint is not well-founded.

Decision:

Section 8 of the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 – 2015 requires that I make a decision in relation to the unfair dismissal claim consisting of a grant of redress in accordance with section 7 of the 1977 Act.

For the reason set out above complaint CA-00037534-001 is not well-founded.

Dated: 20th July 2021

Workplace Relations Commission Adjudication Officer: Pat Brady

Key Words:

Unfair dismissal, ‘No show’ by complainant.