The Workplace Relations Commission has ordered the Clare county coroner to pay over €8,000 in compensation to her former legal secretary for unfair dismissal – an award made on top of a redundancy lump sum for over a decade's service.
The coroner, Ennis-based solicitor Isobel O’Dea, had claimed Mary McInerney had asked to be let go "voluntarily" from her one-day-a-week job in January 2021 – a claim denied by the complainant and rejected by the employment tribunal.
Ms McInerney said she had only been asking when she could come back to work in January, but that when the coroner sent her a lump sum of €2,889.60 and a €400 gift card the following October she felt she had "no option" except to take it.
The WRC upheld Ms McInerney’s complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, in a published decision, and affirmed her entitlement to statutory redundancy in an order under the Redundancy Payments Act 1977.
The complainant told the tribunal in February this year that she had worked for Ms O’Dea at the respondent’s home as coroner’s secretary since 2008, receiving a day rate of €120 for seven hours’ work but was placed on layoff in April 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
There was "no communication" from Ms O'Dea from July 2020 to December that year, the complainant said, adding that she reached out to her employer in 2021 when the Department of Social Protection asked about her hours.
"I need to know going forward if you want me to return to the office working one day per week or if you wish to make my position redundant. You might let me know one way or the other so that I can also make decisions on how I move forward with my working days," she wrote in an email on 18 January, opened to the tribunal.
The coroner replied: "I do not envisage a return to work in [redacted address] as a possibility now. I note your suggestion re redundancy, and it would appear to be an option which should be examined and pursued."
Ms McInerney replied stating that the "only reason she mentioned redundancy" was that she had not been asked back to the office.
"I guess you or somebody else is doing the work," she said, adding that she would accept redundancy.
Ms O’Dea said she was now working longer hours and had the assistance of her son in the work, and that staffing changes in An Garda Síochána meant she had "greater assistance" with the work Ms McInerney had been doing.
"She initiated it," Ms O’Dea said when asked by adjudicating officer Úna Glazier-Farmer whether she intended to make the secretary redundant. "As far as I was concerned, she requested redundancy and I facilitated it."
Ms Glazier-Farmer also asked Ms O’Dea whether her son was being paid for the hour or two of work he was doing per week, and the respondent confirmed that she was paying him.
Kerin Hickman O'Donnell Solicitors, appearing for the coroner, argued that WRC ought to reject jurisdiction in the matter on the basis of a voluntary redundancy.
Ms McInerney, representing herself as a lay litigant, denied seeking redundancy, and said she had been looking for a date to go back.
The adjudicator, Ms Glazier-Farmer, wrote in her decision that the redundancy was "presented as a fait accompli" to the complainant.
"The clear reality of this case is the respondent made no effort whatsoever to consult with the complainant around her role despite persistent attempts by the complainant … to discuss the matter with her. There was no proper consideration of alternatives, and no alternatives were discussed. The complainant was not allowed the right of representation and there was no right of appeal," Ms Glazier-Farmer wrote.
She ruled Ms McInerney had been unfairly dismissed on 28 October 2022 and ordered compensation of €8,040 – a sum equivalent to 67 weeks’ pay to the complainant.
Ms Glazier-Farmer also made a separate order confirming that the sum was to be in paid in addition to any lump sum for statutory redundancy.
