Worker

Employer

Anonymised Parties

An Accounts Administrator

 Transport Sector Company

Representatives

  Self-Represented

Non -Attendance

Act

Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Complaint seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969

IR - SC - 00001674

16/08/2023

The Worker was employed as an  Accounts Receivable Administrator  since March 2019 on a monthly  salary of €3333.33, based on a forty-hour week. The Worker claims she was bullied by a sales manager for not taking responsibility for what she saw as an unconventional transaction. She claims her complaint was not addressed by management. The Worker is seeking compensation for effects of  inaction by the Employer.

The Employer did not attend the hearing but instead sent in a written submission containing a denial of the claim.

A particular customer regularly  breached the credit terms and was in debt for a substantial sum of money  to the Employer. The Sales Director told the Worker  he had a plan to sell a truck on behalf of this customer and the proceeds of this sale would go towards the outstanding debt. The Sales Director kept pressurising the Worker to take responsibility for the transaction when it was not within the remit of Worker’s responsibility. Matters came to a head on 14 April 2023 when the Sales Director came into the office and started to shout at her. The Worker was left shaken and intimidated by the encounter. In the weeks previous to the incident in question, the Sales Director was “barking” orders at her for an update on the truck transaction.

The Worker reported the behaviour of the Sales Director to the HR manager. The HR manager came back to her to advise that it should be addressed informally but the Worker refused this option and opted instead to have it investigated formally. She sought an update when no progress was apparent and was told by the HR manager that a Director was dealing with the complaint. The Worker claims that the Employer ultimately ignored her complaint and no investigation ever occurred.

The Worker resigned from her employment on 21 August 2023. Her dispute was submitted to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)   whilst she was still in employment. The Worker claims her resignation was on account of the disregard of the bullying complaint by the employer.

The Employer chose not to attend the hearing because the HR manager no longer worked for the Employer, but instead submitted the following points as part of a written submission. :

Following on from the initial meeting on 14 April 2023, the HR manager engaged with the Worker on a number of occasions in an effort to see whether she would agree to engage in mediation with a view to informally resolving her complaint, but the employer understands the Worker  advised she was unwilling to engage in mediation in this regard.

The HR Manager received external legal advice at the time to the effect that given that the issue complained of was an isolated interpersonal incident that it could not come within the definition of bullying and that the most viable method of resolution was through an informal process. However,  the Employer  was unsuccessful in securing the Worker’s agreement to participate in an informal resolution process. The Employer believes that the HR manager would have communicated the unsuitability of a formal investigation to the Worker.

Following on from this, the Complainant did not raise any further complaints and/or grievances prior to tendering her resignation on 21 August 2023.

In conducting my investigation, I have taken into account all relevant submissions presented to me by the parties. It was regrettable that the Employer chose not to attend, and I deemed it more than reasonable to put more weight on the Worker’s account of events that led to her claim. I am  satisfied that the HR Manager had treated the complaint as being a bullying complaint in nature and therefore made efforts to pass it on to a named Director to arrange to  investigate it formally when the Worker refused an informal approach. This is the prerogative of a worker when submitting any bullying complaint as provided for in  the Codes of Practice as laid down by the Workplace Relations Commission and the Health and Safety Authority.

I conclude that the Employer made no attempt to formally investigate the Worker’s complaint and this omission by the Employer had a detrimental  effect on her. The Worker claims that it led to her eventual resignation, but the subsequent termination of her employment is not a matter for investigation because the resignation post-dated the submission of the dispute.

Having heard the submission of the Worker and read the submission of the Employer, I am satisfied that the Employer did not investigate the bullying complaint submitted by the Worker and therefore I uphold her claim.

Section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act 1969, Bullying.