An IT manager fired shortly before the arrest of his former boss in connection with Ireland's largest-ever seizure of crystal meth has won nearly €78,000 for unfair dismissal and employment rights breaches.
The award to the employee, David McCullagh, includes a full year’s salary in compensation for unfair dismissal, after he spent ten months out of work – as the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) concluded his job search "may have been curtailed" by how the company, linked to the Ballyseedy Garden Centre, went out of business.
His former employer, Ballyseedy Restaurant Ltd, one of a number of associated firms run out of the garden centre, ceased trading on 26 February this year in the wake of the arrest of its chief executive, Nathan McDonnell (44), of Ballyroe, Tralee, Co Kerry, following the seizure of millions of euro worth of drugs 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 in December.
Mr McCullagh’s employment with the company ended on 13 January this year after he raised a formal grievance complaining that the it had imposed cuts to his pay and working hours the previous autumn– which he said had been done without his consent, as there was no job contract in force providing for layoff or short-time working.
He told the WRC he had been originally hired part-time in 2021 to work on implementing computerised ordering systems at the company’s five restaurants, which included the café at the garden centre, and reported directly to the CEO. He later took on responsibility for IT support and procurement across the business, earning €50,000 a year for a three-day week.
His evidence was that the firm’s chief financial officer, Ms B, told him in August last year that the company "needed to reduce the overall wage bill".
He said he saw "no reason" for this as he had sight of daily sales figures and stocktaking reports and could see that turnover was up and staff costs down.
His belief was that family which owned the business "just felt they wanted to get out of hospitality" and referred to a third director, a co-founder of the business, stating that she had difficulties with the minimum wage and the provision of pensions and sick leave.
"I presume they were just trying to reduce headcount to make the company more interesting to someone who might want to buy it," Mr McCullagh said.
When he objected to short-time working, Ms B told him the decision "had been made by the family as business owners and it was not a proposal for me to consider", he said.
He said he believed that Ms B was trying to "bully me out of the company" by cutting off access to company emails and software in October 2023. He lodged a formal grievance over the pay dispute a month later "as things had not improved", he said.
Mr McCullagh added that having met with the CEO earlier in the week, the CEO emailed to him on Saturday 13 January asking for clarification on documents submitted as part of the grievance process. Then, two minutes later, a second email arrived from the other director, Ms B, telling Mr McCullagh he was being "let go", the complainant said.
The complainant said that by his calculations, he was owed over €21,000 for outstanding annual leave, public holiday entitlements, 13 weeks of reduced salary, and statutory notice pay – as well as a statutory redundancy payment he said would be worth over €3,000.
Mr McCullagh said he had been unable to find anything more than short-term academic work since his dismissal at the start of the year, but that he was on a panel for an executive officer post in the public service and hoped to have "something coming up" next month.
He said he was on the books with a number of recruiters – but described being "offhandedly" turned down for a job which he said suited him perfectly by the owner of one local hospitality business.
He said the impression he had was that one recruiter "didn’t want to put me forward" for another post "because I’d been with Ballyseedy".
He added that a college mentor told him when he went to apply for part-time academic work: "Best not to mention Ballyseedy because of the fallout."
WRC adjudicator Aideen Collard said she had "no doubt" that all of Mr McCullagh’s work for Ballyseedy Restaurant Ltd had been "bone fide".
She upheld statutory complaints brought by Mr McCullagh under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994, the Payment of Wages Act 1991 and the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 – noting that there had been no defence offered by the company, which had failed to attend the hearing.
She called Mr McCullagh "an impressive witness" and wrote that he gave "a credible account of the circumstances giving rise to his dismissal" backed up by correspondence.
"I have no doubt that all of the work undertaken by the complainant on behalf of the Respondent was bone fides. Unfortunately, his ability to secure suitable alternative employment may have been curtailed by the manner in which the respondent ceased trading," Ms Collard wrote.
"He outlined a number of instances whereby he was close to securing a suitable position but when the prospective employer learned of the identity of his previous employer, the job offer inexplicably became unavailable," she added.
She considered Mr McCullagh had been actively seeking employment throughout his ten months out of work and awarded him a year’s salary, €50,000, as compensation for unfair dismissal.
She also awarded €24,000 in compensation for non-payment of accrued annual leave entitlements and non-payment of wages and notice pay, along with €3,848 for the absence of a written employment contract. In all, Mr McCullagh was awarded €77,848.
Ballyseedy Restaurant Ltd was placed into liquidation by the High Court at the start of this month, on foot of a petition by the Revenue Commissioners.
