A woman employed by a Mullingar-based designer sock company, who claimed she was unfairly dismissed for making two phone calls, should be paid £6,000 in compensation, the Labour Court has recommended.
The woman was employed by LMB Sock Creation Ltd from the date it was set up, April 27th, 1998, to November 13th last. She specialised in the designer sock business and had worked with one of the management team in a competitor company for five years, the court was told.
The telephone calls were the reason for her dismissal, she claimed. One was to a person still employed in the competitor company "who had sent her a present". The second phone call was to a former employee in the competitor company. "During the conversation, the worker mentioned that the boiler was not working and that her office was very cold as a result. Following these two incidents, relationships at the company became worse and eventually resulted in her dismissal."
The company, however, claimed that she was dismissed for "gross misconduct", namely two breaches of confidentiality: "This involved the two telephone calls that the worker had made in which, the company claims, she gave out vital information."
The worker claimed she had been asked to join the company by management and it was agreed that her position would be permanent, with no probationary period. She was in charge of all design systems.
"There was no proper heating in the office and she had to wear a jacket and gloves to keep warm," the employee said in her submission. It was because of this that she "innocently mentioned in a second telephone call that the boiler was not working".
She also made a number of phone calls to her family and friends "because she was increasingly being isolated." The company argued that she had been dismissed for breaches of confidentiality. The first allegedly occurred some weeks before the operation was set up: "In a conversation with an employee with a competitor company (she) gave confidential information regarding sales orders."
In the second instance, the worker told a former employee of the competitor company that the boiler had blown up.
But the court was satisfied that LMB Sock Creation did not follow fair procedures in deciding to terminate her employment.
The company confirmed it was familiar with the code of practice on disciplinary procedure, but considered it did not apply in this case.
"The court is unable to accept this submission," its deputy chairman, Mr Kevin Duffy, determined. "This was a case of alleged misconduct, and the provisions of the code are clearly applicable." Neither did he accept that the employee had "wilfully or deliberately" breached the requirement for confidentiality in a way that could amount to gross misconduct.
In assessing the damages, Mr Duffy took into account the fact that the woman had been "actively recruited" by LMB and resigned from a company in which she had worked for five years to take up the offer - as well as her personal financial loss since the dismissal.