A firm that operates the €50 million four-star Hyatt Centric hotel in Dublin made a director of sales redundant three weeks after she informed her bosses that she was pregnant, a Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Adjudicator has ruled.
WRC adjudicator John Harraghy has ordered Realmside Ltd - trading as the Hyatt Centric - to pay €85,000 compensation to Orla O’Keeffe after concluding that the dismissal was based on Ms O'Keeffe's gender and a breach of the Employment Equality Act.
Mr Harraghy said the company failed to prove that Ms O'Keeffe's dismissal by reason of redundancy was unconnected with her pregnancy.
The Hyatt Centric at the Coombe near St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin only opened in January 2020 and is the O’Sullivan family-owned Hodson Bay Group’s first foray into the Dublin market.
The hotel shut down temporarily on March 20th 2020 due to Covid-19 and Ms O’Keeffe became pregnant the same month.
Ms O'Keeffe told the hearing that she told the hotel’s managing director that she was pregnant on May 6th 2020 and the commercial director two days later.
Three weeks later on May 27th, Ms O’Keeffe was called to a meeting and told by the managing director that her position was no longer “financially viable” and she was being made redundant on June 5th.
'Discriminatory dismissal'
In evidence, Ms O’Keeffe - who took up her role on June 4th 2019 - confirmed that she received no explanation in relation to the reasons behind “financially viable” and was not afforded any opportunity to make representations on her own behalf.
Derek Dunne BL, instructed by Kearns Heffernan Foskin Solicitors advanced the case on behalf of Ms O’Keeffe at the WRC, but no one attended the WRC hearing on behalf of the Hyatt Centric firm.
Mr Harraghy stated that the only evidence from the Hyatt Centric was a letter sent to the WRC on November 11th, 2020.
He said: “I was not in a position to verify or test the details contained in that letter at the hearing and I do not attach any weight to that submission.”
Mr Harraghy found the failure of the hotel firm to provide written details to Ms O’Keeffe that her dismissal was for substantial grounds not connected with her pregnancy and maternity “leads me to find that this was a discriminatory dismissal based on the complainant’s gender”.
He stated that Ms O’Keeffe has a loss of earnings, loss of her statutory rights to maternity leave “and clearly suffered a lot of stress and distress as a result of her dismissal”.
Mr Harraghy said Ms O’Keeffe had to relocate as a consequence of her dismissal and is due to commence work on a three days per week basis and will receive pay of €15 per hour for 20 hours per week.
'Headhunted'
In her evidence, Ms O’Keeffe confirmed that she understood the challenges posed by Covid-19 and was willing to consider redeployment within the Hotel Group or any other alternatives, but her employer did not discuss, explore or offer any alternatives to redundancy.
Ms O’Keeffe had also assumed additional duties before her redundancy. She was ‘headhunted’ for the post and on year two with the business was to earn €65,000 before all employees in managerial positions were asked to take a put cut in March 2020.
Ms O’Keeffe accepted a 15 per cent pay decrease to ensure that there would be no job losses. She told the WRC hearing that she was on maternity leave from October 2020 to June 2021.
She stated that she applied for a considerable number of roles, and she obtained no response from approximately 90 per cent of these applications.
The managing director at the Hyatt Centric, Declan Curtis said on Sunday: “The hotel was not aware of the date set for this case and was only made aware of the decision today. The hotel plans to appeal the decision by the WRC.”
He said: “The hotel would not condone or practice any form of discrimination towards its employees in the workplace and would have an excellent track record in this regard as an employer.”
