The Labour Court overturned an Adjudication Officer’s decision and ordered Bridgehall Taverns Limited T/A The Uluru Bar & Restaurant to pay Deirdre Walsh €15,000 compensation for unfair dismissal. The determination was dated 29 June 2023.
Walsh worked as a bar person for the company. She resigned after a customer who had sent her an explicitly sexual text was allowed back into the pub without notice to her, an apology or an undertaking about his future behaviour. The Court found that the employer’s conduct was objectively unreasonable and that she was justified in treating herself as constructively dismissed.
The company argued Walsh had not used its grievance procedure. The Court found that the managing director had handled the events and had not encouraged her to use that procedure, so she could not reasonably have been expected to do so. It ruled that she was unfairly dismissed. The Court took account of her economic loss and found she had not made consistent, adequate efforts to reduce her continuing losses by seeking other work when setting compensation at €15,000.