The WRC found that a security company unfairly dismissed an accounts assistant and directed it to pay her €15,000. The decision was dated 9 February 2023. The worker’s safety and equality complaints were withdrawn, leaving her unfair dismissal complaint.
The company said the worker’s position became redundant after restructuring, with payroll outsourced and other duties reassigned. She said her work had expanded to include management-accountant duties and that she was selected for redundancy after maternity leave without a fair process or proper consideration of alternatives.
The WRC found no evidence to support the company’s account of the reorganisation or the claimed redundancies. It also found no evidence that the management accountant hired around the time of the dismissal was better qualified or experienced than the worker. The adjudicator considered her period of unavailability for work, her lower-paid temporary job in early 2022 and her lack of evidence of job-search efforts when setting compensation.