A Dublin hotel has been ordered to pay €14,000 to a banqueting manager who claimed he was unfairly dismissed because his assistant took a booking for a Traveller wedding.
The Employment Appeals Tribunal said it was satisfied the owners of the Sheldon Park Hotel, Kylemore Road, had unfairly dismissed Mr John Gannon, Oldbridge Walk, Lucan, on the basis of the claimant's uncontested evidence.
Mr Gannon said he had been working at the hotel for just over a year when a booking was taken, on October 19th, 2002, for a wedding of a member of the Travelling community.
Two weeks later, Ms Jackie Cosgrave, a director of Arcourt Ltd, which owns the hotel, asked the claimant to pull the file and said that they were "f****** knackers", Mr Gannon alleged.
Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Ms Cosgrave denied the claims, adding that Arcourt planned to appeal the tribunal's decision.
While she declined to discuss the case in detail, she said the company had been unable to attend the tribunal due to an illness.
In a summary of Mr Gannon's case, the tribunal said the booking had been taken by the claimant's assistant at a time when Mr Gannon was not at work.
After Ms Cosgrave allegedly confronted him over the booking on November 1st, 2002, the claimant called the general manager to discuss the matter.
The claimant said the two directors were asking the question: "How are we going to get rid of them?"
Mr Gannon claimed he had been "berated" by both directors for 15 minutes before the pair left with the general manager.
He said the general manger then returned with news of his dismissal.
A certificate excused one of the directors.
"However," the tribunal said, "in relation to the other director the tribunal received no notification or any indication that this remaining director or a representative on his behalf would make an appearance and inform the tribunal of any difficulties the respondent company had experienced."
