This claim came before the Tribunal by way of an employee (the appellant) appealing against a Rights Commissioner’s Determination.

The appellant in this case worked as a chef for the respondent company since July 2008. Up until November 2012 the employment appeared to have been uneventful. On 14th of November 2012 a manager raised a health and safety concern regarding the temperature of chicken being served and on that same day one of the hotel owners had complained about the quality of a sandwich produced by the appellant.

Following the issues the manager instructed the Head Chef to summarily dismiss the appellant when he was next due to work which was Saturday, 17th November 2012. This instruction was carried out and the appellant was summarily dismissed. However, despite this the appellant worked the following day.

It was the manager’s evidence that he met the appellant early the following week and reiterated that he was dismissed for the two reasons outlined above. However, it was the appellant’s evidence that when he was dismissed by the Head Chef on Saturday he was only told of the issue with the sandwich and the temperature of the chicken was only raised when the appellant had communicated that he felt it was unfair.

The appellant gave evidence to the Tribunal of loss and efforts to mitigate that loss since the dismissal.

DETERMINATION:

The Tribunal ruled that the appellant was unfairly dismissed and was entitled to be compensated. The Tribunal stated that in the absence of a proper investigation and enquiry into the matter at the time, the respondent was unable to satisfy the Tribunal that the dismissal of the appellant was merited. Furthermore, the complete absence of any meaningful disciplinary procedure and the denial of basic rights to the appellant are unjustifiable.

The Tribunal awarded the appellant the sum of €14,600 by way of compensation under the Unfair Dismissals Acts, 1977 to 2007, thus varying the Rights Commissioner’s Determination.

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