The owner of a well-known Dublin pub has told the Employment Appeals Tribunal that any suggestion he had dismissed an employee because of a dispute with his parents, the former owners of the pub, was "insulting and untrue".
Mr Denis Coman, the manager and owner, along with a number of his siblings, of Coman's pub in Rathgar, Dublin, dismissed Ms Teresa Barry from her job as a cleaner in December 2003.
Ms Barry had been cleaning the pub for 14 years. She also worked, and continues to work, as a housekeeper for Mr Coman's parents, Mr Patrick and Ms Mary Coman.
The ownership of the pub had been at the centre of an acrimonious legal battle between Mr and Mrs Coman and five of their six sons, including Mr Denis Coman, that lasted several years.
The matter was resolved in July when an out of court settlement, believed to be in the region of €7 million, was paid to the parents for their shareholdings.
Counsel for Ms Barry, Mr Mel Christle, put it to Mr Coman that "getting rid" of Ms Barry was "another twist in of the knife as far as you were concerned in relation to any links you had, business or otherwise, with your parents".
Mr Denis Coman told the chairwoman of the tribunal, Ms Dymphna Cusack, that he thought it was a "very cheap shot" for counsel for Mr Christle to draw a link between his dismissal of Ms Barry and his relations with his parents, and he would never put an employee in the middle of a "family row".
He told the chairwoman that he resented Mr Christle raising "family issues". "This is an employment issue, it has nothing to do with my family."
Ms Cusack said that clearly Mr Christle had been told by his client that the family dispute had some impact. "I realise everyone has been through a difficult time, but so has the claimant - she has lost her job," she said.
About 18 months before her dismissal, Mr Coman said he had become concerned about the standard of cleanliness of some areas of the pub, "particularly hygiene issues that couldn't be ignored". He said he brought this to the attention of Ms Barry on a weekly basis. Standards would improve briefly, but then deteriorate. Ms Barry was an "excellent cleaner" he said, but there were areas of the pub she wasn't cleaning on a regular enough basis. He organised a formal meeting with her to discuss the matter on November 18th, 2003.
He said Ms Barry told him she didn't have enough time to get all the cleaning done in the 24 hours a week she worked and suggested he hire an extra cleaner part time. Mr Coman said financially he could not take on another cleaner and asked Ms Barry to increase her hours to 36 a week.
At a subsequent meeting on November 29th, Ms Barry told him that she couldn't take on the extra work because she was "unwilling to let other clients down". Mr Coman said he asked if she would "drop" other clients, but she declined. Further meetings failed to resolve the matter and on December 6th he served her with notice of redundancy.
The tribunal has adjourned until November.
