A major retail chain must pay a store manager €15,000 after unfairly dismissing him for hugging other staff members, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has ruled.
WRC adjudication officer Patsy Doyle found the store manager "was wronged" by his employer and failings in the disciplinary process "caused him inordinate reputational damage".
Ms Doyle said the €15,000 compensation should be paid in respect of the procedural unfairness and lapse in natural justice afforded to the store manager. She said she had factored in a reduction in the award to take account of the store manager’s own contribution to his dismissal.
The man was dismissed from his post at the end of November 2018. In his dismissal letter, he was told: “. . . I find your actions have fell below the expected standards we require from a member of management when colleagues have told you to stop hugging them, but you continued to do so”.
The letter went on: “As a member of the management team, I find your actions are wholly unacceptable and has resulted in colleagues being offended.”
The company, which established its Irish operations in 2011, launched an investigation into the store manager’s behaviour after a female member of staff alleged that other staff had told her that they felt uncomfortable with the store manager’s inappropriate behaviours, including unwanted physical touching.
The store manager said he had not had a complaint against him in his seven years with the retailer and told his employer that while he had hugged staff, no one had taken serious offence to it and it was “banter in the workplace”.
The store manager appealed the dismissal internally.
He said “hugging was a universal practice, not just to females and should be viewed as a minor misconduct and not gross misconduct”.
He went on to say that if he had been directed to stop he would have.
He argued that dismissal was not warranted and the sanction disproportionate.
Decision upheld
However, on March 11th last, the store manager was informed that the decision to dismiss had been upheld.
The man secured alternative work last April.
The retailer told the WRC the store manager’s actions in the case “amounted to breach of trust between the parties in the employment relationship”. It said the behaviour “amounted to serious misconduct warranting summary dismissal”.
The retailer’s appeal manager in the case said no complaint of harassment had arisen but four to five staff out of a total of 18 to 20 had been negatively affected by the actions of the store manager.
Under cross-examination at the WRC hearing, the store manager confirmed that he had pinched a female member of staff and argued that his behaviour amounted to horse play.
Ms Doyle stated that no apparent action was taken to investigate or curtail the store manager’s “very unusual behaviour”.
“I have made no finding on the complainant’s guilt or innocence in that regard,” she noted.
Ms Doyle said it remains unclear what case the complainant was being asked to respond to outside “pushing and hugging”.
She stated: “It is unclear how the term gross misconduct evolved.”
Ms Doyle also ordered the employer to pay the store manager an additional €2,975 over not paying the man’s notice.
