WRC rejects Sneem Hotel chef’s constructive dismissal claim

The WRC found that Auke Schots was not unfairly dismissed after he left his head chef job at Sneem House Hotel Ltd Sneem Hotel. The decision was dated 10 January 2022. Schots said he was being pushed out of the role, that his job had been advertised and that management failed to hear his grievance. The hotel denied dismissing him and said it had raised concerns about his communication, staff training, menu changes, language and mobile phone use. The WRC found no evidence to support Schots’s claim that his job had been covertly advertised and found that discussing a lower-grade role was not a fundamental breach of his contract. It also found that management had reasonable cause to discuss performance concerns and that the interactions did not amount to unreasonable behaviour that seriously damaged the relationship. Schots did not prove that he had been dismissed.