A bronze foundry used Covid-19 as an opportunity to free their oldest and longest-serving employee from the workplace and now has to pay her more than $25,000 in compensation, the Workplace Relations Commission has found.
It seems to me that this is a classic situation where a long-time employee has been labeled as overpriced, dead weight,” the WRC arbitrator wrote in a decision published today.
It would have been “commercially obvious” to fire her or invite her into early retirement — but instead, the foundry had chosen to “alienate, ostracize and belittle her,” it wrote. bailiff Penelope McGrath.
In its decision, the WRC upheld the complaints against Crucible Arts Services and Technology Cast Ltd under the Equal Treatment of Employment Act, the Wages Payment Act, the Organization of Working Time Act and the terms of employment (information) taken by her former employee Kathryn Hartnett.
The Dublin 8 workshop, which denied the claims, has produced numerous well-known bronzes, such as the statues of James Connolly and Phil Lynott, and the Lady Justice plaque in the Dublin Criminal Courts of Justice building.
Ms. Hartnett joined the foundry in April 1997 and for 25 years led the company’s bookkeeping, reception and administrative duties, the WRC was told.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Ms. Hartnett and all her colleagues were told that the foundry would close from March 20, 2020, in line with the government’s shutdown as a non-essential business, without even a skeletal workforce, the foundry heard. WRC.
Ms Hartnett said she had brought home papers and bills related to work from the past 18 months so that she could process VAT and payroll and “anything else that would be required of her in those early and uncertain stages of closing”.
However, she said she didn’t hear from her workplace until she learned from a third party that there was activity at the foundry.
She then learned that the tasks she would normally do, such as returning earnings, had been done, but not by her, and saw activity in the company’s bank account, she said.
She was approached by the company’s accountants about the bank account and then discovered that access to the account had been blocked.
Ms. Hartnett said the company president, who was referred to only as Mr. CB Jr. in the decision, was “evasive” to her when she called him, but “finally admitted” that either he or the firm’s accounting firm “had the lion’s share.” of her duties”. †
She said she was shocked and upset that she had apparently been replaced without a call or any warning.
Ms Hartnett added that Mr CB Jr told her that she herself should be “happy to be on the PUP” (Pandemic Unemployment Payment).
She wrote to the company on October 23, 2020, saying she was saddened by the situation and asking for clarification and whether she was intended to be fired, the WRC heard.
She said she called on December 15, but got no answer.
Ms Hartnett told the WRC that she was left out on returning to work “in the hope that she will give up and leave” and that at 63 she was the oldest and longest-serving employee and that there was “an executive decision was taken”. made in such a way that it is replaceable”.
The company, represented at the hearing by John Madden BL, instructed by attorney Julie Breen, claimed that the foundry had been “completely shut down” and that the directors had to do “everything to keep the company afloat”.
Mr CB Jr indicated that orders were declining, material costs had risen and the company was in “survival mode”.
The company president added that it had “always been his intention to bring the complainant back to the workplace when prospects improved”.
In her decision, Ms McGrath said there had been “a rather unenlightening attempt to suggest incompetence or laziness” on the part of Ms Hartnett when she was questioned.
Ms Hartnett’s attorney Mary Fay BL disagreed with a passage from the company’s statement stating that the complainant was employed under “exceptional conditions for a prolonged period” with an hourly wage of €26 and a “disproportionately high pension”.
“Even the directors don’t get that much of a benefit from the company,” the entry added.
The arbitrator wrote that the “content and tone” of the passage “was about as blunt a confession of the underlying thinking as is necessary to convey the respondent’s rationale”.
“It is quite clear that the complainant’s claim that she is considered too expensive is correct,” added Ms McGrath.
Ms. McGrath wrote that, on the hearing date, Ms. Hartnett was in the dire situation of still being employed by the company due to layoff in circumstances where the company had admitted that it had outsourced most or all of its duties.
“The most surprising thing is the almost total lack of involvement. The accused has not had meaningful contact with the complainant since March 2020,” she wrote.
Mr CB Jr had “used the random opportunity Covid presented to get the complainant out of the workplace and keep her out,” she added.
Ms McGrath wrote that she did not accept the evidence presented by the company that the company was in a “terminal downward spiral”, suggesting that if the company were to hit 40 pc. her hours.
“I don’t think the motivation here was anything other than to get rid of this lady and I fully accept that her age and the associated length of service is a factor,” she added.
She upheld Ms Hartnett’s discrimination complaint by awarding her €17,500 in damages and further recovery of €4,000 for unpaid wages; € 3,600 for public holiday pay and € 650 as compensation for failure to provide written terms of employment.
The total of prizes amounted to € 25,350.