A former IT manager at a company linked to the Ballyseedy Garden Centre in Co Kerry, who was unfairly dismissed shortly before his boss was arrested in connection with a multi-million euro drugs seizure has been awarded €77,848.
This follows Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Adjudicator, Aideen Collard finding that David McCullagh was unfairly dismissed by his former employer, Ballyseedy Restaurant Ltd of Ballyseedy Home & Garden, Caherbreagh, Tralee, Co Kerry.
Ms Collard has ordered the company to pay Mr McCullagh €77,848 for various workplace breaches including €50,000 for his unfair dismissal in January of this year.
As part of the €77,848 order, Ms Collard also ordered that the firm to pay Mr McCullagh €12,000 for his Payment of Wages claim comprising of €10,720 in unpaid wages and €1,280 in compensation.
In her decision, Ms Collard said that to date, 10 months later, Mr McCullagh had been unable to secure alternative employment.
Ms Collard said that in evidence Mr McCullagh “outlined a number of instances whereby he was close to securing a suitable position but when the prospective employer learnt of the identity of his previous employer, the job offer inexplicably became unavailable”.
Ms Collard said that she found Mr McCullagh to be “an impressive witness and provided a credible account of the circumstances giving rise to his dismissal as corroborated with correspondence confirming a complete absence of fair procedures”.
Ms Collard found that Mr McCullagh’s dismissal was both substantially and procedurally unfair.
The final day of the two-day hearing in the case took place only on October 28th and Ms Collard fast-tracked the decision as the High Court wound up Ballyseedy Restaurant Ltd on November 4th, where the court heard that the company owed Revenue more than €1m.
The company, one of a number of associated firms run out of the garden centre, ceased trading on February 26th this year in the wake of the arrest of its chief executive, Nathan McDonnell (44), of Ballyroe, Tralee, Co Kerry, following a multi-million euro seizure of methamphetamine by gardaí at the Port of Cork.
Mr McDonnell pleaded guilty at the Special Criminal Court in September to drug importation and facilitating an organised crime gang, and is due to be sentenced next month.
At the WRC, representatives for Ballyseedy Restaurant Ltd did not attend either hearing date to proffer any evidence in rebuttal of the complaints.
Mr McCullagh - who represented himself at the hearing - commenced work with the firm as a Digital Transformation Specialist on a fixed-term contract between June 2021 and August 2021 whilst undertaking further third-level studies in IT.
He reported to the CEO, also a director, and the fixed-term contract was extended until May 2022, when he became a permanent employee as Head of IT and Procurement for the company.
The employer operated a garden centre and restaurant at Ballyseedy, Tralee, Co. Kerry along with four other cafés/restaurants around the country.
Mr McCullagh was responsible for the installation and maintenance of IT, procurement and stock control systems for all the company’s five sites and the provision of training.
Ms Collard reports that on January 13th 2024, Mr McCullagh was notified of his dismissal by reason of redundancy.
The letter required his signature in agreement to a non-disclosure clause, notwithstanding that the sums related to his statutory entitlements without any ex gratia sum.
Mr McCullagh learnt that his employer had ceased trading on February 26th 2024, and he never received any of the payments, including statutory redundancy outlined in the dismissal letter.
On March 8th 2024, Mr McCullagh received an email from the firm's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) stating: “Unfortunately, the company is no longer in a financial position to pay you redundancy. However, I can apply for state redundancy for you if you wish.”
Thereafter, the CFO refused to meet with him or answer Mr McCullagh’s calls and, as a consequence of his dismissal, he was unable to continue with an application for mortgage approval and had to apply for jobseekers.
In August 2023, the employer reduced Mr McCullagh’s work hours from three days a week to one day a week as the employer needed to reduce its wage bill.
Through his role, Mr McCullagh had access to company financial information and was aware that sales were up, and the payroll was down and, therefore, he could not understand why the CFO was taking this course.
The CFO emailed him confirming that he was being placed on short-time from September 4th 2023 stating: “Please note this difficult decision has been made by the family as the Business Owners and is not a proposal for you to consider.”
Mr McCullagh was also placed under significant financial pressure owing to the unilateral 67 per cent reduction in his wages and became unwell owing to the stress entailed.
