A pregnant bar supervisor who was faced with unproven and previously unmentioned allegations of sexual misconduct against a male colleague after she was dismissed by her employer has won €18,000 for discrimination.
A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudicator took the view that the sexual misconduct allegation, could be an "elaborate attempt to shore up the decisions" taken by Brandon Taverns Ltd, the operator of the Imperial nightclub in Cavan Town when it dismissed Leeanne Moore in November 2023.
Ms Moore said her dismissal came just five days after she nervously disclosed her pregnancy to her line manager, who told her: "Don't worry, your job is perfectly safe."
In a decision published today, the nightclub operator was found to have discriminated against Ms Moore on the grounds of pregnancy in breach of the Employment Equality Act 1998 - as well as breaching the Minimum Notice and Terms and Conditions of Employment Act 1994 in failing to provide her with a written statement of employment terms.
The worker, who was represented by solicitor Setanta Landers, told the tribunal she had started work at the nightclub just seven weeks earlier and was very nervous about having to tell her new employer" that she was pregnant - though the initial response from her line manager on Thursday 9 November 2023 was to congratulate her.
However, the tribunal heard a dispute arose that weekend about how Ms Moore had distributed tips at the end of the Saturday night shift on 11 November.
All sides accepted there had been a "genuine mistake" that led to Ms Moore leaving a barmaid out of the calculation - but she ended up having to approach all the floor staff asking for money back so the tip share could be recalculated.
Adjudicator Penelope McGrath said she "never really got a satisfactory understanding as to what went wrong" but said it was clear that the barmaid "kicked up a considerable fuss", with Ms Moore "targeted for the blame.
The WRC heard that later that Sunday, November 12, a manager, identified as "Ms CI" in the decision, told Ms Moore she felt she could no longer trust her with tips - and added that she had received "a number of complaints" about her.
Ms CI then asked whether she could cope with her workload and said there were remarks from junior waiting staff about Ms Moore "not being fully present".
When she asked her supervisor whether the conversation had "something to do with the pregnancy", Ms CI’s reply was: "Don’t put words in my mouth," Ms Moore told the WRC.
Ms Moore said in evidence she believed Ms CI "was getting pressure from upstairs to replace [her]".
Her case was that her manager then suggested to her that she "needed to drop down" from supervisor to waitress, before she "backtracked" and agreed Ms Moore could stay on as floor supervisor until the end of the year.
Mr Landers argued that this exchange amounted to "a form of victimisation triggered by the newly-acquired knowledge of the complainant’s pregnancy".
Ms Moore found out the following Tuesday, 14 November, that she had been left off the roster - and when she called Ms CI to inquire that day, she learned she was out of a job, the tribunal recorded.
Ms Moore filed her discrimination complaint to the WRC in April this year.
The manager, Ms CI, said in evidence that another floor supervisor, Mr K, had complained to her that Ms Moore "had placed her hand on his buttocks" on 12 November.
She said Mr K had made a similar complaint on a previous occasion that Ms Moore had "inappropriately leant across him" while reaching for something.
Ms CI said she accepted Mr K’s account of what happened; that it had been "purposeful" and inappropriate, and that she decided "there and then" to dismiss Ms Moore.
The manager said she "just decided to take her [Ms Moore] out of the equation".
The WRC noted that Ms Moore had been told nothing of Mr K's allegations against her during her employment and had been denied "any opportunity to defend herself".
The allegations appeared for the first time in legal papers presented by the company’s lawyers, it was further noted.
Mr K, who also gave evidence, told the WRC that Ms Moore "did not have a great work ethic" and that he would have "fired her a long time ago".
He said Ms Moore "touched him when reaching for a card machine" in a "tight space" on one occasion and said he had complained to Ms CI.
On 12 November 2023, he told the tribunal, Ms Moore came from behind him at the till area, and he felt her hand touch his buttocks. He said he slapped her hand and was "very annoyed".
Ms Moore said she could not remember "anything of that nature happening" in what she described as a "busy and often tight workspace".
Her position was that nothing was ever said to her and that she had "no sense that Mr K slapped her hand away", the tribunal noted.
In her decision, Ms McGrath wrote it surprised her to see that in their submission to the WRC in August 2024 - some nine months post termination - that the company had "pivoted to justifying the termination of employment by reason of some unproven allegations of sexual misconduct".
"There was no hint of any such allegation at the time that the complainant was dismissed," she wrote, adding: "It would not be unreasonable to form the view that this might not be some elaborate effort to shore up the decisions taken in November of 2023 [sic]," she added.
"My sense is that [Mr K] had formed an animus towards the complainant and, given the opportunity to give evidence against her, he had, as noted by the complainant’s representative, gratuitously stretched the truth," Ms McGrath wrote.
She found that Ms Moore had "was discriminated against and was victimised", ordering Brandon Taverns Ltd to pay €17,500 compensation for the breach of the Employment Equality Act.
Ms McGrath also awarded the complainant a further €500 for the company’s failure to provide her with a statement of her employment terms in breach of the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1994, which had been conceded by the respondent.
