A leading Dublin restaurateur has denied allegations of racial discrimination and workplace rights breaches levelled by his former head chef.
He accused the chef of having such a temper he considered calling gardaí on Christmas Eve two years ago.
Kinsley Auguste has brought claims under the Organisation of Working Time Act, the Payment of Wages Act, the Terms of Employment (Information) Act and the Employment Equality Act against Dillingers Restaurant Ltd in Ranelagh, Dublin 6.
He was head chef there until February 2022 and is alleging excessive working hours, the failure to provide shift breaks or any premium pay for Sunday work.
The claims were denied by restaurateur John Farrell, who appeared as respondent-in-person when the Workplace Relations Commission opened a hearing into the statutory complaints yesterday.
Under oath, the men traded accusations about the running of the restaurant, the alleged attitude of its management towards non-Irish staff, and a Christmas Eve row in 2021 that ultimately led Mr Auguste to resign.
Mr Auguste explained that he had referred to family status in his discrimination complaint as well as race because understaffing in the restaurant meant the job was "first thing in my life", ahead of his wife and two children.
The complainant said the executive chef at the restaurant group phoned him up at 6am on Christmas Eve 2021 telling him that he was to go to Dillingers to assist a manager drafted in from another group restaurant.
Both of the usual managers at Dillingers were out sick with Covid-19, and the Government had ordered 8pm closure orders across the hospitality sector just days earlier.
Mr Auguste said that when he arrived at 7am, the manager was crying about phoning customers to cancel bookings and told him: "I can't deal with Johnny".
With the prep done for that day, the restaurant was "ready to go for service", but Mr Farrell arrived at 10.30am and wanted the menu changed, Mr Auguste said.
"Me and Mr Farrell, we have a big clash, because he knew that the menu was set up that day was set up three or four weeks before, and he never said anything. Only half an hour before service," Mr Auguste said.
He said Mr Farrell was "roaring" at someone on the restaurant floor and the manager was saying she would not work at Dillingers.
"Then he say, why that menu, we need to change that menu. Firstly they address that we're overstaffed and he wanted me to send someone home. I say we are fully booked. Second issue we don’t want that menu any more, we have to change the menu, then the argument starts," Mr Auguste said.
"Then he sent me home and tells me I am suspended without any warning or anything. That ruined the whole day with my family. I will never forget that year," he said.
"The [other] chef at the time was Mauritian as well, he wanted to walk off that day as well. Mr Farrell went out to offer a raise [to him] in front of me. Even him wanted to go home because what he seen on that day was unfair to me after five or six years working for Mr Farrell," Mr Auguste said.
"That wouldn't be my recollection. There's a lot of people who would be able to clarify, numerous events, Kingsley would have got quite aggressive that morning," Mr Farrell said, adding that the references to the floor manager were "quite confusing".
"Mr Auguste started to bang things, scream and shout. I actually had to tell him to leave because his behaviour was so aggressive to the point that I was about to call the guards if he didn't stop. He went out and stood around in the laneway - at that point I told him to go home," he said.
Mr Farrell said Mr Auguste left with his daughter, who had also worked at the restaurant, and "tried to get the chefs to leave with him".
"That sounds like the end of the relationship," said adjudicating officer Catherine Byrne.
Mr Auguste, who had also included race as an alleged ground of discrimination, said members of management at the business would "sit down and have a coffee" with the front-of-house manager if they visited the restaurant but "never say hi" to kitchen staff.
"They treat their own people in a better way than us foreigners, you know," he said.
"I would disagree, obviously - the group executive chef, he's from Mauritius, as well as Nadeem here," Mr Farrell said in response, referring to a chef, Nadeem Ramjahn, who had attended the hearing with him.
"When I walk into the kitchen I’d be saying hello to everyone. This comes from basically a very strong temper from Kingsley which would have flared up a few times, not being able to talk to him in a calm manager without him getting worked up, angry," Mr Farrell added.
On the pay and working hours complaints, the tribunal heard Mr Auguste's contract made provision for shift work up to 48 hours per week, with the employer’s position being that the premium was provided for in the complainant’s €798-a-week pay.
Mr Auguste said he worked "every Sunday with no exceptions" as the restaurant stayed open Wednesday through Sunday, with Monday and Tuesday the only days off.
He said his hours of work were more like 55 to 60 hours a week and that accordingly he had gone without pay as his contract only covered a shorter working week and he had not been given time off in lieu.
Denying the complaints, Mr Farrell said the head chef "would have been in charge of the roster, in charge of his own days off".
"Sunday would be a very busy day, part of what the restaurant is, and we’d always pay a lot more over the minimum wage to factor in these things," he said.
Mr Farrell said the firm had signed copies of contracts issued in December 2016 and November 2017 but that Mr Auguste had refused to sign one given to him in January 2018 "because he wouldn;t want to have signed it".
He said this was a "pattern" as Mr Auguste had also refused to sign a written warning given to him by the company's operations manager.
Mr Auguste said he was served with the written warning over an inspection during the pandemic when the restaurant was down to just himself and another chef.
"They tell me the place was not properly clean whatsoever, so that's why they wanted to give me a warning for that," Mr Auguste said.
"We were doing the prep, the service ourselves and we were washing ourselves - even putting customers to sit outside the first time, still we didn’t have any KPs [kitchen porters], we were doing everything ourselves," he stated.
"Should I get any extra warnings for that six months when I have no-one, no KP there?" he said.
Ms Byrne ended the hearing of the statutory complaints and asked the press to leave so that she could consider a further complaint under the Industrial Relations Act by Mr Auguste behind closed doors.
It is understood a decision will be published on the statutory complaints in due course.
