In February 2013, the Complainant commenced employment with RCI Call Centre (Ireland) Ltd, a holiday exchange provider. The Complainant was employed at RCI’s call centre in Cork, where he worked as part of RCI’s Italian team. In April 2016, the Complainant was involved in an argument with a colleague which resulted in a disciplinary investigation conducted by the Operations Manager. This culminated with the Complainant being sanctioned with a final written warning. He appealed to Head of Operations but was unsuccessful.

In December 2016, the Complainant ran into further trouble when he referred to a customer as an “impolite animal”, resulting in a heated exchange between the Complainant and a number of his colleagues. The Respondent conducted an investigation which was carried out by HR. During the investigation, a further two allegations were put to the Complainant in relation to matters which the Respondent submitted came to light in the course of a routine audit.  Subsequently, the Complainant was dismissed and his appeal against that decision was unsuccessful.

The Chairman of the Labour Court noted that the “introduction mid-process, of two additional disciplinary allegations” against the Complainant led him “to question whether or not there was an impetus at work within the Respondent for whatever reason, to build as strong as case as possible against the Complainant in order to ensure his demise”. The Complainant was not informed at the outset of the investigation of all of the allegations that were raised against him. Therefore, the Complainant was not afforded a proper and meaningful opportunity to present his defence to them. The Labour Court also highlighted that the Respondent did not give sufficient consideration to imposing any lesser sanction on the Complainant. Therefore, Chairman Haugh found that the Complainant had been unfairly dismissed and so set aside the decision of the Adjudication Officer. Chairman Haugh also ordered that compensation amounting to €20,000 be awarded to the Complainant.
https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/cases/2020/january/udd202.html