Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

A Barista

A Café

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

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

CA-00046893

29/10/2021

The Worker began her employment as a Barista with the Employer on 13 March 2020. She stated that she was treated unfairly by the Employer’s new manager and by one of her colleagues. She voluntarily ended her employment on 9 July 2021 as a result of this mistreatment.

The Worker stated that Employee X, who was also a former customer, had just started working in the kitchen and used to call her “Darling” which offended her. She decided to bring this up with her manager, who firstly didn’t believe her and was dismissive of the matter, telling the Worker that it was “simply an Irish thing”.

Further to this, on 4 June 2021, when the Worker was speaking with a colleague about Employee X, the Worker’s colleague informed the Worker that Employee X had also been using offensive terms when talking about her when he had been a customer. The Worker also highlighted that other workers had informed both herself as well as her colleague that Employee X had been asking other colleagues questions about the two of them. This caused the Worker to feel very uncomfortable about working with Employee X. She agreed however following her conversation with her colleague that she would have no difficulty working with Employee X as long as there were no similar issues in the future.

Later that day, the Worker’s colleague asked her questions about the coffee machine and the procedure involved in opening the cafe in the mornings. This had raised the possibility in the Worker’s head that her colleague had been incorrectly trained as she had been working there for a number of weeks at that stage. As her colleague also asked the Worker lots of questions about the coffee machine and her different tasks, she told her not to be worrying because she wasn’t trained properly as the manager who trained her was a chef and not a barista

Following her arrival to work on 6 July, the Worker stated that she immediately noticed that the workplace was extremely unclean. Specifically, the coffee station was not filled, the bins were full, the coffee machine was not properly cleaned and there were still chemicals in the pipes which were very likely coming out into the coffee. She also stated that the cloths used to wipe the milk froth from the machine were unclean and smelled of both sour milk and chemicals simultaneously which could potentially end up in somebody’s coffee.

Further to another conversation with her colleague, the Worker believed that she needed to train her colleague properly because unlike the manager, she was a proper barista. As it was not that busy in the cafe, she began to train her colleague and guide her through the necessary actions needed to be taken when working as a barista and remind her of her duties. She stated that she did so in a kind manner and kept reminding her colleague that it was okay to make mistakes, especially as it was her her first ever job. She stated that she even wanted to write down a checklist to be completed every day for the new staff working at the till and coffee machines so that it would make things easier for everybody to both remember and keep the workplace running to an acceptable standard. She also decided to speak with the manager personally the next time she had a shift to discuss the matter with him.

On 9 July when she came to work, the workplace was in a similar state to what it had been on 6 July with the only difference being that the bins were even more full than before. The manager indicated that he wanted to speak to the Worker and told her that he was dismissing her because she had been “bitching” about him and other employees. She stated that she didn’t understand what he meant by the use of the word “bitching” because English was not her first language and then asked him to speak more slowly so that she could understand him correctly. She finally understood what he meant and stated that he was dismissing her as a result of a personal issue that had nothing to do with her performance in the workplace.

When the Worker tried to explain her side of the story, he simply ended the conversation by stating that he had already made his decision and that she had two weeks to find a job. When she told him that she wanted to call the owner of the café, he told her to do so and she immediately telephoned her. When the Worker explained to the owner that the manager had fired her for “bitching”, the owner informed her that she would speak to him and that she would call her back. Despite this promise, she did not call that evening.

The owner came into the café a few days later however and informed the Worker that she was not dismissed. The Worker stated that there were too many difficulties in the workplace at that stage and resigned from her employment. She also stated that she was hospitalised as a result of the stress. She also alleged that the new manager dismissed all of the other staff in a similar way to her and claimed that she overheard him telling another colleague that he wanted to take over the place and “get rid of everyone connected to the previous manager”

The Worker also stated that she subsequently spoke to another customer who she knew who alleged that that everything in the café had changed for the worse and highlighted that customers were leaving full cups of coffee outside on the tables because there was no-one left to train the new barista staff since the Worker’s departure.

The Respondent did not attend the hearing to give evidence

The Worker did not advance an argument or make a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 that she was constructively dismissed, namely that she resigned because of the unreasonable conduct of the employer.  Instead, the Worker referred a dispute in relation to ‘bullying & harassment’ procedures or lack thereof in the employment. 

According to the Worker, there were some difficulties with her line manager and another colleague which caused her stress and resulted in her leaving her workplace and never returning, even though she enjoyed the work she was doing and had a very good relationship with the previous manager. 

Give the failure of the Employer to attend the hearing and to provide any evidence in relation to the matter, I find that there was a deficit of actions on their part in the handling of the dispute. Specifically, I find that the Employer should have sought to mediate between the Worker and her colleagues when made aware of the difficulties encountered by the Worker.

Given the failure to attempt mediation, I recommend that the Employer pay the Worker a sum of €1,000 in order to resolve the dispute.