Courts / Meath / Report
'Ghost employee' was actually Polish woman with limited English, WRC hears
Summary
An Applegreen service station manager, Graham Price, was dismissed for gross misconduct after an audit revealed a Polish woman had worked four months without wages and was not registered on payroll. The audit, conducted by Applegreen's regional manager Keith Ennis in February 2022, found discrepancies between point‑of‑sale records and payroll, indicating a possible ghost employee. Ennis questioned the assistant manager about the worker's status, noting she had not been paid for 16 weeks. Price's lawyers argued the delay in onboarding was due to the worker's lack of a PPS number and a backlog following the HSE cyber‑attack. They claimed Price had made best efforts to assist her and that the dismissal was unfair under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973. The tribunal adjourned the case for a later hearing.
Who, what, where, when and why
What: Report matter: 'Ghost employee' was actually Polish woman with limited English, WRC hears. Charges or matters: gross misconduct; failing to correctly conduct the onboarding of the worker; failing to keep statutory working time records; budget misappropriations. Procedural stage: trial
When:
- October 2021 Incident
- February 2022 Incident
- 25 January 2022 Other
- 2021 and 2022 Other
- 2024-04-08 Publication
Why: His lawyers maintain the delay in "onboarding" the worker was because she had no PPS number when she was hired in October 2021 and that her application to register had been affected by a backlog in issuing them in the wake of the cyber-attack on the HSE the previous May. CNI source report
Case subjects
Applicant
Charges: gross misconduct; failing to correctly conduct the onboarding of the worker; failing to keep statutory working time records; budget misappropriations (Alleged Or Contested)
Outcome: adjourned to a future date
Places mentioned
Topics
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