The Workplace Relations Commission awarded a worker €20,000 for constructive dismissal and €17,450 for sexual harassment by a food service provider. In a decision dated 13 April 2018, it also found the worker’s complaint that €188 had been unlawfully deducted from her wages was not well founded.
The worker said bullying, harassment and a flawed internal investigation had made it impossible to return to work. The adjudication officer found that the investigator’s intervention with NERA on the provider’s behalf compromised the investigation. She accepted the worker’s evidence that the working environment was intolerable and found the worker was justified in resigning.
The WRC upheld the sexual harassment complaint, accepting the worker’s evidence, text messages and witness testimony about vulgar comments and remarks about her appearance. The provider did not rebut the case and produced no evidence of anti-harassment policies. The wage complaint failed because the officer accepted that no deduction had been made.