The Complainant was employed as a Supervisor with the Respondent until the date of her redundancy on the 24th of January 2020. Following unanswered letters from her solicitor to the Respondent, she submitted her Complaint Form to the WRC on the 15th of April 2020. The Complainant was employed from September 2012 to the 24th of January 2020 as a Supervisor with a FÁS Community Employment Scheme . The Complainant submitted that she had a clean disciplinary record and worked diligently on behalf of her employer.

On the 9th of December 2019, she was asked by the Secretary of the Board to organise a staff meeting for the 12th of December 2019. At 8am on the 12th of December 2019, she received an email from the Secretary that he would no longer act as sponsor to the Scheme.  He further stated in the email that he had asked the Department of Social Protection to attend the meeting “to discuss placement options with other sponsors”.  At the meeting, staff were told that their jobs were safe and they would be redeployed to other schemes. Wh en the Complainant asked about her role she was told, in front of the entire staff, that she was to be made redundant.

The Complainant described the meeting of the 12th of December 2019 as “humiliating” to be told she was being made redundant in front of her colleagues.  She made attempts to contact her employer between December 2019 and January 2020 but failed to get a response from her employer.  The Complainant submitted that the Respondent made no effort to go through the redundancy process with her prior to terminating her employment. There was no consultation as to alternatives to redundancy nor was she offered alternative employment like her colleagues. The Complainant was not afforded the opportunity to appeal the redundancy decision.

The Complainant submitted that there was an absence of her employment rights, fair procedures and natural justice by the Respondent and that the decision to terminate the Complainant’s employment was a breach of trust and confidence.  The Complainant did her best to find alternative work. She undertook a Diploma, a Start your own business course and set up her own business in March 2021. The Complainant is due to undertake further education in July 2021. In the meantime, she continued to search for employment and has been placed on the panel for a public service role.

The Respondent stated that the Board had absolute trust in the Complainant and agreed with everything she said about her positive work. Her work was independently audited by the Dept of Social Protection who complimented her and her work was held in the highest esteem. The Respondent stated that they had “no option” but to make the Complainant redundant. Consequently, there was no dispute on the facts of this case from the Respondent.

The Adjudication Officer found in favour of the Complainant. Having considered the great efforts the Complainant went through to mitigate her loss, the Adjudication Officer decided to award the Complainant the sum of €40,170 which equated to one year’s salary. The Adjudication Officer considered this award to be just and equitable in the circumstances where there was a complete failure on the part of the Respondent to apply fair procedures to the Complainant’s dismissal. 
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2021/september/adj-00027918.html

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