A veteran Irish executive has described finding out from a company newsletter that she was being demoted from her role as managing director of the multinational where she spent 24 years.
“I have to say, that was pretty stressful,” Caroline O’Connell told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Ms O’Connell also asked whether she was expected to “sit around for a year on the dole” under a non-compete clause after being unfairly dismissed from her €275,000-plus-bonus job at an arm of international translation and localisation group Lionbridge.
Her former employer told the WRC this week that it was conceding the unfair dismissal of Ms O’Connell, its managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
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Her complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 opened this week to consider redress – with more than €500,000 in dispute between her time out of work, an alleged bonus shortfall, and other matters, the tribunal was told.
Her barrister, Stephen Moran BL, appearing instructed by Kearney Solicitors, said his client was “unceremoniously ousted” in a “sham redundancy” in November 2024.
“I believe I was dismissed because I took a grievance about my job being changed in a newsletter to the company,” Ms O’Connell told the tribunal.
Ms O’Connell is also pursuing her former employer in the High Court – while the Lionbridge Group has sued her in the United States accusing her of breaching a restrictive covenant by going to work for an alleged competitor, Vistatec, the tribunal heard.
Her evidence was that she had interviewed for three roles and was offered two, turning down a €60,000-a-year fixed-term position at the Irish Management Institute as a sales director while still interviewing for Vistatec, where she secured a “C-suite” position.
The tribunal heard Ms O’Connell’s base salary at Vistatec was higher than at Lionbridge, but the potential bonus was smaller. The press was directed not to report her new salary.
Counsel for the complainant Mark Curran BL, appearing instructed by Mason Hayes and Curran for Lionbridge International ULC, the arm of the group which employed Ms O’Connell, said she signed a restrictive covenant precluding her from working for a competitor.
He put it to her that Vistatec was a competitor.
“What was I supposed to do, sit around for a year on the dole?” Ms O’Connell said.
Mr Curran said that Ms O’Connell had failed to show sufficient evidence of efforts to mitigate her losses by interviewing for three jobs in the number of months she was unemployed.
Her claim for ongoing losses due to any difference in bonus terms “shouldn’t be included” in the calculation of losses, he argued, while the stock options were beyond the WRC’s jurisdiction and a matter for the High Court. Mr Moran disagreed with these points.
Mr Moran said Lionbridge was speaking “out of both sides of its mouth” by seeking to restrict Ms O’Connell from taking up work, before it had “criticised” her efforts to obtain “an extremely handsome package” with her new employer.
Adjudicator Breiffni O’Neill said he will give his decision in writing in the new year.
