Finance Manager Dismissed After Making Protected Disclosure Awarded €34,737

In a recent case A Finance Manager v A Charity (ADJ-00051548) the Complainant claimed he was unfairly dismissed and submitted a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission (“WRC”) under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977-2015. Because the Complainant had less than a year’s service, ordinarily he would not have the protection of the Unfair Dismissals Acts. However, the Complainant successfully argued the dismissal was wholly or mainly as a result of him having made a protected disclosure and was awarded €34,737. Such cases do not encompass a minimum service requirement on the part of the employee.

Interestingly the Respondent employer made a successful application for the hearing to be heard in private, and the parties’ names anonymised, which was contested by the Complainant. In normal course all WRC hearings are heard in public following the significant Supreme Court decision Zalewski v Adjudication Officer & Ors [2021] IESC 24. The Adjudicator deemed that special circumstances existed in this case, including that ongoing investigations by other state bodies may be prejudiced if the case was heard in public. The work of the Respondent charity is also of a very sensitive nature and this too played a part in the decision to anonymise.

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