Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

An account executive

A branded workwear clothing company.

Representatives

  In person

 Did not attend hearing.

Act

Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act.

CA – 00056586 - 001

11/05/2023.

The Complainant was employed by the Respondent as an Account Executive. Employment commenced on 28th November 2022 and ended on 6th March 2023.

The Complainant’s gross monthly payment was €3,750.00.

This complaint was received by the Workplace Relations Commission on 11th May 2023.

In complaints heard under the Industrial Relations Act, the Complainant is referred to as ‘the worker’ and the Respondent is referred to as the ‘employer’.

·        The worker wishes to express his deep concern about the termination of his employment as an Account Executive at (company name redacted) on March 6th, 2023.

·        The worker believes that his dismissal was unfair, and that the employer did not follow the correct procedures in terminating his employment.

·        The worker transitioned over from finance to the role of Account Executive at the end of November 2022. During his onboarding, he was informed that his KPI’s would not count until after the fourth month, and that he would be receiving additional support as he transitioned to a new industry.

·        However, the worker feels that he did not receive the support that was promised to him (manager acknowledged this), and that the role was not as described to him during the hiring process. After receiving an onboarding box (what you receive when you pass probation) and thinking that he had passed his probation.

·        On March 6th, the workers employment was abruptly terminated during a meeting titled 'onboarding aftermath' by his manager. The worker asked if there was anything he needed to prepare on his side as he had not heard of any issues with his performance.

·        The worker claims that he was always top 5 in activity every month and he was not given any warning or put on a performance improvement plan.

·        The worker’s laptop was seized immediately after the meeting, and his g-suite account was terminated within an hour.

·        The worker was never given a written warning, and he was not provided with a letter stating the reason for his termination.

·        Furthermore, the worker feels that the company's decision to only pay him for three of the assigned holidays for the year, rather than the 19 days that was promised to him during the off-boarding call, was also unfair and has left him in a difficult financial situation.

·        As such, the worker is bringing up a dispute with the Workplace Relations Commission.

·        The worker feels that he did reach out to try and engage in a constructive dialogue with his employer to try to reach a fair resolution of this matter.

The employer did not attend the hearing of the complaint.

In an undated letter the Managing Director (based in Belgium) wrote to the Workplace Relations Commission, this letter read as follows:

Through this formal letter we would like to inform you that we are unable to attend the hearing of September 29 2023.  This is in Room 4.01 Lansdowne House, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, D04 A3A8.

This employee (name redacted) was employed with us from 28th November 2022 as an account executive.  In this role he was responsible for the following duties:

-        Prospecting & setting up meetings with potential clients

-        Selling & following up on current period

During the first 3 months we had (name redacted) primarily supervised by a sales enablement manager providing dedicated training & follow-up.  However, it quickly became apparent that (name redacted) was not achieving the results as expected.  As a result, we decided to terminate the partnership on March 6 2023 with pay out as legal of 1 week (without performance) and vacation days prorated.

Meanwhile, we have also closed our Dublin office completely.  This is because we noticed that living & working with Irish colleagues was no longer profitable for (company name redacted).  Mid 2023 we made the difficult decision to close all foreign offices (physically) & centralize in Belgium.

Thank you for your understanding,

(signed by Managing Director).

In conducting my investigation, I have taken into account all relevant submissions presented to me by the parties.

It was not helpful that the employer chose not to attend the hearing of the complaint.

The worker was issued with a contract of employment. This contract has been signed electronically by both the worker and employer.

Article 7 of this contract states as follows:

Probation.

There will be a probationary period of 3 months.

The management reserves the right to extend the period of probation if necessary. However, on satisfactory completion of this period your employment will be confirmed. Notwithstanding the company’s right to extend your probation, your probationary period will not be in excess of one year.

The normal disciplinary process will not apply during the probationary period.

Should either party wish to terminate the employment during the period, the notice period given will be in accordance with current employment legislation.

The three months probationary period would run, as per contract, from 28th November 2022 to 27th February 2023. The worker had completed his probationary period at the time of his dismissal and had received what is referred to as the onboarding box, this onboarding box contains a tee shirt, a cap and a message that read – “Congratulations. Well deserved. Hope to see you on top of the leadership board”.

The worker received an electronic meeting invite message on 3rd March 2023. The meeting would take place on 6th March and the subject of the meeting was stated as ‘onboarding aftermath’. The worker asked would he need to prepare anything for this meeting and was told no.

During the meeting on 6th March the worker was informed that the company needed someone more senior than him and could no longer support him/did not have time to help him and that this action was nothing against him as a person. The worker was dismissed with immediate effect.

I find that the dismissal of the worker was outside of the three months probationary period stated in the contract of employment, the dismissal was conducted without due regard for fair procedures. I believe the worker was denied the opportunity to be represented / accompanied at the dismissal hearing and was not afforded the opportunity to appeal the employer’s decision to dismiss him. Consequently, I find that the dismissal of the worker was unfair.

I now recommend that the worker should be compensated by the payment of €7,500.00 (two months gross salary) and that this amount should be paid within 42 days from the date of this recommendation.