Citywest hotel boss challenges dismissal

THE GENERAL manager of the Citywest Hotel near Dublin has brought a High Court challenge to his Christmas Eve dismissal from his €250,000 a year post.

John Glynn (59) claims Sean Whelan, chief executive of the Jim Mansfield group which owns Citywest, was at the centre of bids to undermine him since last May.

He claims he was taken on by Mr Mansfield on an agreed salary of €250,000 and had rejected an alternative offer last month of a job with a €50,000 salary and 13 per cent of net profits.

Mr Justice Roderick Murphy yesterday gave Mr Glynn’s lawyers leave to serve short notice on HSS Ltd, trading as Citywest Hotel, of their intention to seek an injunction stopping his purported dismissal.

In an affidavit, Mr Glynn said Mr Whelan came up with a “baseless” complaint related to traffic management for the recent Disney on Ice event at Citywest so as to immediately dismiss him on Christmas Eve. He claims he was not afforded fair procedures and is the victim of a “concerted action” to remove him for reasons he is not even sure of.

Mr Whelan had offered him an alternative job on December 28th as consultant to the hotel on a salary of €50,000 plus 13 per cent of net profit but he rejected that.

Mr Glynn became general manager of Citywest in 1998 and remained there until 2005 when he left to become manager of the Clayton Hotel in Galway in which he also invested. He said Jim Mansfield and his wife Anne had in August 2008 persuaded him to return as general manager of Citywest.

He said Ms Mansfield told him her son Jimmy, who was then involved in running the hotel, was “unreliable”. Mr Mansfield senior had also developed serious health problems, Mr Glynn added.

In March last year, Jimmy Mansfield told him Sean Whelan might become a temporary financial consultant to the Mansfield group but would have no input into the day-to-day running of the hotel. The fact Mr Whelan was a “social acquaintance” of Jimmy had a significant bearing on his appointment, Mr Glynn believed.

Mr Whelan set up an office in a room in Citywest and by May had said he had been appointed chief executive of the Mansfield Group by Jim Mansfield. Mr Glynn said Mr Whelan had a “disruptive effect” on the hotel business and had moved personnel without reference to Mr Glynn.

In July, Mr Whelan cut Mr Glynn’s salary by €100,000 but this was temporarily restored following the intervention of Jim Mansfield senior, Mr Glynn said. The salary was cut again to €150,000 in October when Mr Glynn went into hospital but when he returned to work in November, he was told he would receive payment due and got it.

He said a dispute between himself and Mr Whelan relating to traffic management issues at Disney on Icearose before Christmas and Mr Whelan wrote accusing him of acting unprofessionally and demanded an apology.

Mr Glynn said he discussed the letter with his management team who agreed it was uncalled for and he then tore up the letter and returned it to Mr Whelan in that condition in “a moment of weakness”. Jim Mansfield later informed him Mr Whelan was taking legal advice over the letter incident. Three days later, Mr Whelan told him it was agreed he would be immediately dismissed.