The Complainant commenced employment with the Respondent as a Client Relationship Manager on the 10th of April 2019. The position was part time at a rate of pay of €30,000 per annum plus a car allowance. She was engaged on successive written fixed term contracts between the 10th of April 2019 and the 29th of August 2020. The final written contract from June 2020 to the 29th of August 2020 was for a full-time position where her salary increased to €60,000.

There was no further written contract issued for the period 30th of August 2020 to the date of her dismissal. On the 13th of October 2020 she was informed on a teleconference that her employment would be ended on October 30th, 2020.  She then received an email confirming the decision and informing her that the decision was made on the basis that her role would be performed in future by a person with a nursing qualification. This email also referred to her fixed term work status, meaning that she would not be covered by the Unfair Dismissals Act.

The Respondent contended that this was a redundancy. The Respondent acknowledged that the reason given for the dismissal at the time in relying on a fixed term contract was incorrect and they submitted at the hearing that the Respondent was badly advised at the time.

The decision to be made as to whether or not dismissal was fair/unfair was a simple one for the Adjudication Officer to make in this case. The Complainant was dismissed on one set of grounds i.e. that the Respondent did so because she was a fixed term employee and they believed they were entitled to do so by virtue of the fact that they concluded that her fixed term contract was due to expire. However, at the hearing, the Respondent then sought to rely on grounds which were never put to the Complainant at any stage prior the hearing.

The Adjudication Officer commented that what had been presented at the hearing was ‘a dismissal without any procedures being followed of any kind’. The Adjudication Officer concluded that the Complainant was unfairly dismissed by her former employer. In the circumstances of the case, the Adjudication Officer concluded that a sum of €15,000 compensation should be paid to the Complainant. This amount took into account the fact that the Complainant had secured alternative employment.

Guidance for Employers

Section 7(2)(c) of the Unfair Dismissals Act sets out that a person who has been unfairly dismissed must try to mitigate their losses. The Respondent tried to argue that the Complainant did not make substantial effort to mitigate her losses as she had in effect applied for only two positions prior to June 2021 and confined herself to only one type of employment when looking for work. The WRC sympathised with the Complainant in this case and said it was easy to understand why the Complainant would feel that she was entitled to confine herself to areas of her proven expertise in searching for alternative work, but that is matter of choice for which the Respondent cannot be held wholly accountable by way of compensation.
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2022/april/adj-00032667.html