The High Court has ordered Electronic Arts Ireland Limited to continue paying Jean-Philippe Grenet’s salary and emoluments while his employment dispute proceeds, and restrained the company from appointing anyone to replace him pending further order at trial.
Mr Justice Tony O’Connor made the interlocutory orders on 21 December 2018. The application followed the company’s attempt to dismiss Mr Grenet after a complaint about an alleged inappropriate comment during a video call. The judgment says the company did not dispute, for the purposes of this application, Mr Grenet’s account concerning the complainant’s motivation and integrity.
The company first issued a termination letter dated 14 November. On 6 December, the High Court had temporarily restrained it from taking further steps to implement that dismissal or appointing someone else to Mr Grenet’s role. On 10 December, the company withdrew the dismissal letter and the earlier investigation and disciplinary process. It instead gave notice under the contract’s no-fault termination provisions, restored him to payroll from the termination date and said it would pay salary and other emoluments due for the intervening period.
Mr Grenet argued that the contract entitled him to an investigatory, disciplinary and appeal process, and that the later no-fault termination was a pretext that left his reputation exposed. The company submitted that it could lawfully end the employment by giving contractual notice, without completing the earlier process.
The judge said the evidence at this stage supported a strong case that the no-fault termination was a “cynical contrivance”, and found a prima facie case that Mr Grenet’s contractual rights to a proper process had been compromised. He also identified serious issues about whether John Pompei, Mr Grenet’s line manager, had authority to terminate the contract on the company’s behalf. The judge stressed that these were interlocutory assessments, not binding findings, and that the issues remained for the plenary hearing.
The court also noted that Mr Grenet remained a director of the company and that no removal process had begun. It said he would have the opportunity to exercise his rights under the Companies Act 2014 before any removal, and allowed him to apply for further relief if a removal process began before the claim was determined.
The orders require ongoing salary and emolument payments, bar recruitment or appointment of a replacement, direct the parties to file pleadings, and allow applications for further interlocutory relief on 48 hours’ notice. The judgment does not finally decide whether the company could terminate the contract under the no-fault clause or whether the earlier process breached Mr Grenet’s rights.