Courts / Kildare / Report

Boxing champ awarded €6k for unfair dismissal

Date
2023-07-05

Stage
Trial

Primary locality
Athy

County
Kildare

Summary

The Workplace Relations Commission upheld a constructive dismissal complaint by boxer Roy Sheahan against Kendra Civil Engineering (Ireland) Ltd pursuant to the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977. Adjudicating officer Valerie Murtagh found that Sheahan raised issues regarding heavy duties that exacerbated his hand injury and felt he had no option but to resign. The tribunal awarded Sheahan €6,000 in compensation, reducing the amount because his efforts to mitigate losses did not meet the standard of spending a reasonable amount of time each weekday seeking new work. Sheahan alleged his professional boxing career ended after his left hand was crushed by a digger bucket in January 2020. He claimed that upon returning to work in September 2020, he was assigned heavy duties despite a doctor's note recommending light duties as an initial lead-in. Kendra Civil Engineering's managing director, Dan Curtis, testified that he believed Sheahan was certified for unrestricted work and intended to provide lighter duties at a future site. The company's safety manager, Trevor Murtagh, stated that Sheahan never raised injury concerns during safety audits, though the firm failed to produce audit sheets for December 2020 and January 2021. A separate personal injury claim was noted as ongoing at the time of the hearing.

Who, what, where, when and why

What: Report matter: Boxing champ awarded €6k for unfair dismissal. Procedural stage: trial

When:

January 2020 Incident
September 2020 Hearing Or Sentence
15 December 2020 Incident
December 2020 Other
January 2021 Other
November 2020 Other
2023-07-05 Publication

Why: Four-time national amateur champion Roy Sheahan told the Workplace Relations Commission earlier this year he was forced to quit his building job three months after going back to work after the injury because of the strain of new "heavy" duties on his good hand. CNI source report