The Labour Court dismissed the employer’s appeal and upheld the finding that Declan McShane was unfairly dismissed by Cuan Tamhnaigh Teoranta (Towney Bay Finishing Co. Limited). It varied the Adjudication Officer’s €12,000 award to €1,939.04. The determination was signed on 3 February 2022.
The employer said falling demand led it to end the weekend evening shift and make McShane’s role redundant. McShane accepted that a genuine redundancy situation had arisen, but said he had been selected in retaliation for earlier complaints to the WRC and its Inspection Service.
The Court found the employer had a strong business case for ending the shift. It also found the discussions with McShane were perfunctory, there had been no meaningful effort to consider alternative work, and there was no evidence he could appeal the dismissal. In setting compensation at four weeks’ pay, the Court considered his job search, retraining, redundancy payment and later earnings.