A stable manager who lost his accommodation and stabling for his horse when he was unfairly fired last year has been awarded €57,000 in compensation.
Stable owners Donagh Kelly and Anita Kelly dismissed yard manager Charlie Wheatley in April 2022, the Workplace Relations Commission was told.
The employment tribunal said employment law had been "egregiously breached" in the case and ordered the stable owners to pay accommodation expenses for Mr Wheatley for a year and livery fees for his own horse, on top of the maximum compensation for lost earnings of two years' salary.
Giving evidence in March this year, Mr Wheatley said the stable’s co-owner, Anita Kelly, came to him in an "agitated, angry state" on 7 April 2022 and told him: "You are dismissed."
There were no discussions on the matter, nor any offer of an appeal, Mr Wheatley said.
The complainant, who said he had a long career in the horse and equine business, said that up to that point, "all had gone well" in his employment for the previous two and a half years, with the Kellys’ stable.
No complaints had ever been brought to his attention, he added, before pointing to a possible "difference of opinion" on dressage horses, a particular rider having "brought in the owners" on the matter.
"It was nothing of any major significance," Mr Wheatley said.
The complainant’s solicitor, John Joy of John M Joy & Co, said his client earned €1,726 a month, but also had the benefit of free "all-in" accommodation in connection with his employment, along with stabling for his own horse.
The complainant sought compensation for both the loss of his employment and the accommodation, Mr Joy said.
In addition to the primary complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, Mr Wheatley had also lodged claims against his former employer under the Terms of Employment (Information) Act, 1994 and the Minimum Notice & Terms of Employment Act, 1973 alleging a failure to give him notice pay or a written contract.
In his decision, published this morning, WRC adjudicator Michael McEntee wrote that there had been "no mitigating evidence" from the stable owners as none had been presented.
The Kellys were "fully aware of the date and time of the hearing" in March this year, he wrote, noting that the only contact made with the tribunal was a letter from their solicitors stating that the firm was coming off record.
"On the sworn testimony an unfair dismissal clearly took place and no procedures were followed. It only remains to establish the appropriate redress," Mr McEntee wrote.
The adjudicator ordered the stable owners to pay Mr Wheatley the maximum compensation of two years' salary, €41,000, for the dismissal.
He also awarded €15,000 for the loss of Mr Wheatley’s accommodation at the stables and €1,000 to cover livery fees for the complainant’s horse.
Mr McEntee called it a "significant award" but one he considered "just and equitable" in the circumstances.
"Employment law was egregiously breached," he remarked.
Ruling on the secondary complaints, Mr McEntee rejected the notice pay claim as Mr Wheatley had been paid out until the end of April 2022 but awarded a further €500 in compensation for the failure to provide a written statement of terms of employment.
The total of the orders against Donagh Kelly and Anita Kelly was €57,500.
