ONE OF the country’s best known regional newspapers is denying it unfairly dismissed its former deputy advertising manager.
A sitting of the Employment Appeals Tribunal in Killarney yesterday heard how Sean O'Keeffe, The Kerries, Ballyrickard, Tralee had worked for 21 years without any blemish on his record for the Kerrymannewspaper.
A question arose yesterday of whether the issue before the tribunal was dismissal, or constructive dismissal.
On September 26th, 2008, Mr O’Keeffe was told by letter by The Kerryman Ltd, Denny Street, Tralee, that his employment was being terminated, the tribunal heard. He appealed the decision to dismiss him using the newspaper’s internal appeals process, as agreed between the trade union Mandate and the company.
A full internal appeals hearing was held in a hotel in Portlaoise in November 2008, chaired by a senior official of the regional newspaper group, owned by Independent News Media.
The appeal decided to overturn the termination and to give Mr O’Keeffe one month’s suspension without pay, and that he receive a final written warning. He was required to withdraw allegations against two company staff members, and apologise to them.
He was to accept the services of a professional counsellor with regard to his work pressures. He was given 30 days to accept the appeal finding – or the original sanction of dismissal would apply, the firm’s solicitor, Kieran Kelly, said. The period was extended by seven days. “He did not accept the offer,” Mr Kelly said.
Counsel for Mr O’Keeffe, Denis Horgan, said: “A gun was being put to my client’s head to accept all of these conditions. He has worked 21 years with this company and he never had a written warning of any kind on his record.” There was no mechanism to appeal a part or a condition of an appeals decision, the tribunal was told. “We were unfairly dismissed,” Mr Horgan said.
In December 2008, Caroline Clifford of Mr O’Keeffe’s union Mandate had written to say they did not accept the company’s sanctions, and once they did not accept that the original dismissal applied and Mr O’Keeffe was dismissed, Mr Horgan said.
Mr Kelly said Mr O’Keeffe had in effect dismissed himself. He had entered into the internal appeals process, but refused to accept its findings, he said. The onus was on him to accept the appeal.
Mr O’Keeffe had been called to a meeting in early September and had not attended, the tribunal also heard. Mr Horgan said his client was not allowed on medical grounds to attend and had never refused to attend the meeting.
The matter has been adjourned to April. The hearing is likely to take two days, tribunal chairman Kate O’Mahony was told.