Yong Yue Wang pursues unfair dismissal claim over phone use

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Yong Yue Wang pursued an unfair dismissal claim at the Workplace Relations Commission on 9 January 2024, after Dublin Bus dismissed him for alleged mobile phone use while driving.

The claim concerned a July 2022 incident on Townsend Street in Dublin 2, where an inspector reported seeing Wang holding a phone while driving a bus. Wang denied using it; his evidence was that it remained in his pocket.

Dublin Bus had previously given Wang a three-day unpaid suspension and an 18-month final written warning after a separate phone incident in November 2021. The company argued that the later incident breached its zero-tolerance policy.

Wang’s barrister, Kieran Falvey BL, argued that the disciplinary procedures were defective. He said Wang’s right of appeal over the first incident had effectively been taken away before the severity of the sanction was confirmed. He also cited language barriers and argued that the area manager should have recused himself from the second disciplinary process.

Wang was seeking reinstatement under the Unfair Dismissals Act. The adjudicator closed the hearing and said a decision would issue in the following weeks.