The Circuit Court has awarded mechanic Philip McCabe €5,500 after declaring that AA Ireland Ltd breached his personal data rights in connection with a manager’s phone recording of him while he was off work sick. The court also ordered the company to account for the recording’s loss, erasure or destruction and provide sworn testimony about its current status.
Judge Jennifer O’Brien delivered the judgment on 5 July 2024. The case concerned a recording made on 29 August 2022, when McCabe was helping his mother-in-law cut an overhanging branch at her home in Walkinstown, Dublin. McCabe gave evidence that he saw operations manager Adam Staunton filming him from a car. The company admitted that staff observed McCabe but denied that it had processed or possessed the video.
McCabe claimed the recording and the company’s handling of it breached data protection law and his personal data rights. He said he suffered distress and reputational harm. The company argued that Staunton made the recording without its instruction, that it was never handed to or used by the company, and that no compensation was due without proof of genuine damage.
The video was not used in the disciplinary process that ended with McCabe’s dismissal, and the court noted that his dismissal had been settled in separate Workplace Relations Commission proceedings. However, the judge found a causal link between the recording and the dismissal: one of the grounds for dismissal included McCabe’s angry reaction to being filmed. The recording was closely connected to Staunton’s managerial duties, the court said.
The court was also concerned that the company had not provided sworn evidence establishing what happened to the video. Staunton’s affidavit said he did not hold or transfer a recording, but did not address whether it had been deleted or destroyed. The judge considered it unsatisfactory that McCabe had not been reliably informed of the recording’s status, given that it might have helped him defend himself in the employment proceedings.
The court declared that the company, its servants or agents breached McCabe’s personal data rights and awarded €5,500 compensation under section 117(4)(b) of the Data Protection Act 2018. It ordered the company to account for the recording’s loss, erasure or destruction. The court made no finding on alleged breaches of privacy under the Constitution or the European Convention on Human Rights, or on negligence, breach of duty or breach of confidence. It also awarded McCabe his costs, including reserved and discovery costs, to be taxed if not agreed.