A Dutch academic hired during the Covid-19 pandemic and then fired after telling University College Cork that he was having trouble moving to Ireland to teach in person because of the housing crisis has won €300,000 for unfair dismissal.
It's the third-highest award ever made at the Workplace Relations Commission to an individual employee, and the record order by the tribunal against a public sector employer under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.
Giving evidence on his complaint, Dutch economics scholar Dr Wim Naude said his career had been "ruined by UCC" and that he was working full time "trying to save my skin" since the dismissal.
Dr Naude was dismissed in August 2023, some 20 months after being appointed to UCC’s College of Business and Law as a full professor because, the college said, he had failed to move to Cork in that time.
His barrister, Cillian McGovern BL, appearing instructed by Crushell & Co Solicitors, said it was always Dr Naude’s intention to move to Cork – but that the housing crisis in Ireland was a "significant factor" delaying his move.
The tribunal heard Dr Naude started work at UCC in January 2021, doing his teaching duties online, and came to Ireland in June and July 2021 when restrictions eased. He said in evidence that he was "chasing houses" during this time but that the process was "not easy".
Complicating factors were that his wife suffered from diabetes and his son, for whom she was the primary caregiver, had autisim, he told the tribunal.
Dr Naude said that another professor had been offered accommodation in on-campus apartments for visiting faculty but that support was "non-existent for him".
He said that Professor Thia Hennessy, the head of the business school, suggested to him in January 2022 that he ask for a reduction in his hours. He said he did so in July 2022, ahead of the new academic year starting in September.
The tribunal heard Dr Naude proposed either working as he had in a "blended format", teaching mostly remotely – or to take a 33% reduction in his hours as unpaid leave.
The university’s head of HR, Barry O’Brien, said he thought that Dr Naude had moved to Cork during the second half of the previous academic year and it was "not acceptable" that he had not yet moved.
He said he expected Dr Naude to be "well settled in Cork, well-settled on campus and contributing".
Mr O’Brien replied to Dr Naude on August 8th claiming the academic did not intend to move to Cork for the next academic year, had acted to "frustrate" his contract and that the university "deems your contract of employment to be null and void", the WRC noted.
Mr O’Brien said Dr Naude had until November 30th until his notice expired and that he expected the academic to have "figured out what the corrective action" was on foot of his email.
"Surely, he could figure out: 'If I emailed Barry back on August 9th and said I’ll see you in Cork on the 9th of September, there wouldn’t be an issue,’" Mr O’Brien said.
However, Dr Naude sought payment of his three months’ notice as a lump sum, which Mr O’Brien said he took as "an indication that he accepted my decision".
Questioned on his efforts to find new work and mitigate his losses, Dr Naude said: "Since I’ve been fired from UCC, I’ve worked harder than I ever have, to make sure that I am not destitute, that I don’t lose my house, as a result of the actions of UCC which seems to be blaming the victim now."
"I have been full time trying to save my skin," he added. He said he had earned €17,000 between August 2022 and August 2023, having taught one university module and carried out some consultancy work. Although he was a shareholder in a start-up, he said the company was dormant and not making any money, he said.
Tom Mallon BL, for UCC instructed by Arthur Cox, said Dr Naude was entirely responsible for the dismissal because it was "very clear that to perform the duties requires a physical presence".
However, Mr McGovern said his client, and had been sacked with no fair process, and that the relocation issue could have been "cured or remedied through discussion".
Adjudicator Lefre de Burgh wrote that the university’s argument that Dr Naude should have understood the email from Mr O’Brien as "a move in a game of brinkmanship" designed to push him to move to Cork was "a nonsense on its face".
"It would be, if true, no way for an employer to treat an employee. As an approach by an employer – a university in receipt of public funds, no less – it would lack dignity, decency and reasonability. For clarity, I do not accept that it is true," she wrote.
She upheld Dr Naude’s complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and awarded him €300,000 --a sum equivalent to two years’ salary.
In setting the value of the award Ms de Burgh noted that Dr Naude had lost the right to use the title "professor", affecting his ability to source consultancy work on foot of the dismissal. She also noted "a long list of unsuccessful applications" for academic jobs.
Her view was that the losses Dr Naude suffered "far exceed the maximum jurisdiction of the Act" and that UCC’s actions were "so egregious" that she would have ordered the university to reinstate him to his job as a professor if he had not ruled the option out.
