A construction firm manager who was “chased” through an office by his bosses after being pulled up for “insubordination” over sending an email to 41 colleagues about the dismissal of another worker has won €4,000 at the Workplace Relations Commission.
The employment tribunal has directed Bretland Contracting Ltd, trading as Bretland Construction, to pay senior project manager Brendan Burke €3,180 for unfair dismissal and a further €979 for unpaid wages in a decision just published.
The tribunal was told that Mr Burke sent the mass email on November 14th 2023 after a pregnant female employee of the company was let go during her probation period by a new senior manager.
Referring to the senior manager by name, Mr Burke wrote: “Good man… only six weeks to Xmas and she is pregnant. Well done, you’re doing a great job,” the email read.
The company’s representative, Jerry Lane of Peninsula Business Services, said at a preliminary hearing into the case in June 2024 before adjudicator Aideen Collard that the mass email from Mr Burke amounted to “insubordination”, “harassment” and a “blatant disregard for the company’s hierarchies”.
The company’s position was that Mr Burke had already been given verbal warnings about previous emails. This was denied by Mr Burke, with the tribunal noting that there were no warnings on file.
Mr Burke told the WRC that he was directed to attend a meeting at the company’s offices on Wednesday November 15th 2023 with an email that gave “no context” and simply told him the time and place.
When he arrived, he met four senior members of the company’s management, including the new senior manager he had named in the email.
Mr Burke said was informed at that stage that a disciplinary process was going ahead. He was then given two letters and asked for time to consider them, he said.
“I was told if I leave the room without signing the letters, I’d be fired,” Mr Burke said at the preliminary hearing.
Mr Burke said he told the men that he would leave as it seemed there was “nothing more to discuss”. He said that as he stood up, a senior officer of tahe company shouted: “You’re fired.”
“As far as I’m concerned, my employment ended that day,” Mr Burke said.
Mr Burke and a supporting witness gave sworn evidence at a further hearing convened before a different adjudicator, Penelope McGrath, last November, when four a HR manager, a managing director, the complainant’s line manager, and the manager referred to in the email also testified.
In her decision on the case, Ms McGrath wrote that the meeting “got out of hand” and “voices were raised” – noting that the company’s position was that Mr Burke “shouted something which was effectively a resignation and then stormed out of the room”.
Mr Burke’s stance was that he had asked for 24 hours to consider his position, but was presented with an ultimatum to either sign the apology “there and then” or be fired.
Ms McGrath added: “The evidence from the respondent witnesses was that the complainant did all the shouting, while they seemingly sat back in the manner of demurring choir boys. I find this hard to believe.”
She added that there was no dispute that three of the company witnesses followed Mr Burke out of the conference room and “chased [him] through the open office, down the stairs and into the car park”, where he was “stripped” of his car keys, phone, laptop and jacket.
“[It] must have been a most unedifying display of chaos and mismanagement in this otherwise calm workplace,” Ms McGrath wrote.
She concluded that the format of the meeting, was “designed to be intimidatory and hostile” and that Mr Burke “was provoked into reacting badly and therefore did react badly”.
She upheld the complaint and said it did not ultimately matter whether Mr Burke quit or was fired on the day, because the company’s procedures were “lacking”.
However, she concluded Mr Burke “significantly contributed” to the loss of his employment and that he was not entitled to claim for the loss in earnings after taking a €10,000-a-year pay cut in his new job, which he took up – nor a sum of €9,230 Mr Burke had argued he was due as notice pay.
She awarded Mr Burke €3,180 for a breach of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and a further €979 under the Payment of Wages Act for outstanding salary. In total, Mr Burke secured €4,159 on foot of his complaints.
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