The Workplace Relations Commission has directed Ryan Investments Ltd to pay garage supervisor James Watt €9,393 compensation after finding that his dismissal was unfair. The decision was dated 24 January 2023.
Watt had worked for the company since 2004. He said he had been bullied by a colleague and raised a formal grievance shortly before his dismissal in March 2022. The employer described the case as a technical breach of redundancy procedures and argued that Watt had suffered no financial loss.
The employer conceded that the dismissal contravened the Unfair Dismissals Act. The adjudication officer found that Watt had lost accrued redundancy rights as well as income, and that these were separate forms of financial loss. The officer accepted a calculation allowing for 13 weeks of lost pay and eight weeks of reduced pay, then directed the employer to pay €9,393 compensation.