A part-time canteen assistant from Kildare has been awarded €17,000 compensation after an Employment Appeals Tribunal found she had been unfairly dismissed after she returned 10 minutes late from a 4am break.
Ellen Nolan, Dreenane, Carbury, Co Kildare, had worked 21 hours a week over two nights on a job-share basis for Campbell Catering of Northern Cross, Malahide in Dublin.
Ms Nolan, who had worked for the company for seven years up until she was dismissed, admitted she fell asleep while reading a newspaper during her last 30-minute break at 4am.
She said that at about 4.45am, her manageress came to the "quiet room" where she was taking her break, woke her and told her to return to her work station. She apologised, completed her shift and thought that was the end of the matter.
However, a week later she was called to a meeting with a new manager of the company and the site operations manager. When she admitted she had fallen asleep, she was told it meant instant dismissal.
The site operations manager said they had no choice but to follow the "black-and-white" stipulation in the company handbook that being asleep while on duty was gross misconduct. He knew Ms Nolan and she was a "good employee" and had not been given any prior warnings.
The tribunal said the matter was "in reality about the claimant returning 10 minutes late to her work position after her break".
The three-person tribunal said it did not believe that this amounted to "gross misconduct and does not warrant dismissal, instant or otherwise". In a determination issued yesterday, the tribunal said €17,000 was an "appropriate remedy" for Ms Nolan.