1. 'It's signed 'Elon'' Twitter exec's record dismissal award over Musk 'hardcore' email
Lawyers acting for Gary Rooney, a senior manager at X Corp's Irish arm, Twitter International Unlimited Company, had argued the billionaire tech magnate would have to give evidence on an email he sent after buying the company giving employees a one-day deadline to either sign up to "be extremely hardcore" or take severance.
"It's signed 'Elon'," Mr Rooney’s barrister Arthur Cush BL told a case management hearing in February.
"He's the decision maker whose policy resulted in the mass terminations."
The company’s legal team branded it an attempt to put pressure on the company by seeking "publicity".
Adjudicator Michael MacNamee considered Mr Musk’s testimony unnecessary.
In August, he awarded Mr Rooney €550,000 - a new record in an Unfair Dismissals Act case before the WRC - after deciding the claimant's failure to reply could not amount to him resigning his employment.
2. 'It felt like I was blacklisted from the tech sector'
The WRC convened a hearing for the purposes of determining compensation for unfair dismissal. Ms Carey was quizzed by the tech firm's lawyers about her job hunt after what her solicitor called a "very public sacking".
Ms Carey said she lost her flat, had to live off social welfare and take a lower-paid job as an An Post clerk in the wake of what her solicitor, Barry Crushell, called a "very public sacking".
"It was like I was blacklisted from the tech sector," Ms Carey said. "
"There were multiple tweets, LinkedIn posts, all within that circle regarding me as a person who supports terrorism… every line went cold," she added.
3. Union blues
Mr Ogle, who was a major figure in the anti-water charges campaign, claimed he had been "written out" of Unite's plans after surviving an aggressive throat cancer, an allegation strongly denied by the union.
Mr Ogle has now appealed to the Labour Court and is separately pursuing a defamation case against a former senior official.
4. 'He was a threat to national security'
She told the WRC in March that her case had become "yesterday’s chip paper" for politicians who had once backed her - but that she had been subjected to continuing penalisation by the force, leaving her on long-term sick leave.
Among the allegations raised by Ms West against the force is that she was exposed to sexual harassment and bullying by a "volatile" and "emotionally unstable" senior official at Garda Headquarters, who she said claimed at one stage he had shot dead 27 people.
"He was a threat to national security, a threat to my safety, [and] a threat to my team’s safety," she said.
Just before the tribunal closed for Christmas, Ms West's barrister said his client wanted the adjudicator hearing the matter to step aside, as she believes she has received an unfair hearing from the tribunal.
5. 'I turned around to him and said: 'I'm not a waitress''
"[He] was there with the guys…. [he] turned around to me and said we’ve no red wine," the finance director Tracey McGann said.
"I turned around to him and said: 'I'm not a waitress'," Ms McGann said.
The CEO said he had been under the impression the complainant had the company credit card.
Her complaints of constructive dismissal and gender discrimination were rejected in April, with the WRC finding there was no evidence to support any suggestion or implication that the CEO had a discriminatory disposition against the complainant.
7. The councillor and the seamstress
Among other breaches, the worker, seamstress Patricia Oropeza-Vedia, a Bolivian national who came to Ireland on a work visa, had been underpaid by thousands of euro compared to the salary set out in a job offer letter, the tribunal concluded.
Another politician whose business was called to answer to an employment rights claim was former Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell.
Pharmacist and polio survivor Fadia Alshareefy brought claims of unfair dismissal and disability discrimination against Morgan O'Connell Pharmacy Ltd, trading as Blackglen Pharmacy - which Ms O'Connell co-owns with her husband.
However, Ms Alshareefy’s discrimination complaint was rejected, and she had not been working long enough to enjoy rights under the Unfair Dismissals Act - leaving Ms O’Connell's firm in the clear when the tribunal ruled on the case in December.
7. Blind ex-Paralympian’s triple win in equality claims
Former Paralympic athlete Nadine Lattimore won three equality cases at the WRC in 2024 over difficulties she suffered accessing business premises in Dublin city with her guide dog Pilot.
Then, in September, Lidl was ordered to pay her €2,000 over a February incident when a worker at one of its supermarkets in Dublin City Centre expressed concerns about Pilot potentially "licking the food" in the bakery aisle.
In October, Eddie Rockets came to an equality hearing "holding its hands up" to discriminating against Ms Lattimore following an incident at its restaurant at Parnell Street in Dublin 1 and was ordered to pay €5,000 in compensation.
"I’ve taken planes, trains and boats across many different countries. Previously I had another dog and we travelled extensively across Europe and America. I represented Ireland at the Paralympic Games in 2012, very proudly, with my dog - but I can’t go 100 metres around the corner to a local restaurant," Ms Lattimore said in evidence.
8. Appeal looms after fiddler’s 'gig economy' win
The landmark case was the first time the tribunal applied the principles of the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2023 distinguishing employees from contractors to the entertainment industry - which was termed "the original form of the gig economy" by a barrister acting for the band's management.
Mr McGranaghan called his situation with the band "bogus self-employment" at a hearing last spring.
The ruling is under appeal to the Labour Court and set for a hearing early in the New Year.
9. The receptionist and the baseball bat
In October, the newspaper was ordered to pay €45,000 after the tribunal ruled that the sacking of the worker, Laura O'Regan, was penalisation in connection with a formal health and safety complaint.
Ms O'Regan said the paper’s proprietor, Cormac Casey, told her there had been "no need" for her to put her concerns in writing and that he would get her "a baseball bat to put behind the counter".
Mr Casey's response was that this had been "a metaphor" to say that the company "would go to any lengths to protect staff".
10. Liquidator Wallace secures €2.8m for Protim pensioners
In a landmark decision under insolvency law earlier this month, the State was ordered to pay a record €2.8m into a pension fund for workers at Protim Abrasives Ltd, which went out of business over 15 years ago.
Protim became insolvent in 2009 - as did its company pension fund - but when its liquidator, Kieran Wallace, sought a sum of €6.1m from the Employer’s Insolvency Fund for the fund, the application was turned down. He then complained to the WRC.
A senior counsel acting for the State had told the Workplace Relations Commission that Mr Wallace was trying to "drive a coach and four" through insolvency legislation.
An adjudicator noted that the case advanced was novel – but decided that there had been no "brake mechanism" put forward to halt it.
11. 'Every move that I made was sexualised'
"They would actually howl at women as they passed by on the street," worker Jasmine Olaru said of the pizza cooks at the store in a Dublin suburb, adding later: "I felt completely sexualised, like every move that I made was sexualised."
12. Banker-bartender was sacked twice in a year
Alan Ecock was dismissed from AIB in December 2023, a week after he was awarded €25,000 by the tribunal for his unfair dismissal by the firm behind Kavanagh's Pub in Stoneybatter, Dublin 7.
"It became apparent that the information provided was at odds with what was in the newspaper articles," said Roland Rowan BL, appearing for AIB instructed by bank solicitor Mark Kelly.
Mr Ecock’s solicitor, Setanta Landers, said: "It was not a secret. He's pulling pints in a city centre pub for 30 years. It was not an express breach of his contract of employment," he said.
The tribunal concluded its hearings into Mr Ecock's second unfair dismissal claim earlier this month, with a decision expected in the New Year.
