The High Court has affirmed an order upholding an Employment Appeals Tribunal finding that Eugene Young was unfairly dismissed by Towerbrook Limited, which trades as Castle Durrow Country House Hotel. The court ordered that the Circuit Court order stand. The appeal was heard afresh, and unfair dismissal was determined as a preliminary issue.
The EAT had awarded Young €32,178 for claims under the Unfair Dismissals and Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts. The High Court’s ruling addressed whether his dismissal was unfair; the judgment does not determine the other matters in controversy between the parties.
Young worked as a general handyman from February 2000 until his dismissal in August 2013. The hotel said it dismissed him for gross misconduct arising from alleged aggressive behaviour and abuse towards managing director Peter Stokes and financial controller Naomi Shairp.
The dispute followed an altercation on 4 June 2013. The court preferred Young’s account that Stokes shouted at him and struck him in the chest after confronting him about removing rubbish before the permitted time. Young had removed it to load food for delivery to the company’s café. A GP examined him two days later and recorded bruising consistent with an injury two days earlier. Stokes disputed Young’s account; the judgment records that the precise events were contested.
The court found that Stokes subjected Young to unjustified verbal and physical abuse. It said Young’s behaviour was an “explosive” but natural and consistent response in the circumstances. The court also noted that CCTV footage of the altercation had been viewed but not retained, and that no contemporaneous note of its contents was made.
The court focused on the process leading to dismissal. Stokes investigated and determined complaints that included his own, despite being the person Young accused of assault. The court found the resulting disciplinary meeting fundamentally flawed and contrary to natural justice and the employer’s policies, which required an independent, thorough, impartial and objective investigation. The meeting proceeded without Young, and a decision to dismiss was taken in his absence.
The High Court therefore affirmed the Circuit Court order upholding the EAT’s unfair-dismissal decision. The judgment does not state that the High Court reconsidered or changed the €32,178 award.