Mediator ‘wrong person’ to decide on AIB manager’s appeal, tribunal told

A senior counsel employed by AIB as an independent arbitrator was “the wrong person” for the job as he was a customer, a shareholder in the bank and had previously acted on its behalf, the Employment Appeals Tribunal has heard.

Senior counsel Mark Connaughton, an accredited mediator, was asked by the bank to hear an appeal from Seán McHugh from Barna, Co Galway, whom the bank was seeking to dismiss, the tribunal heard.

Mr McHugh, a former senior manager with AIB, has asked the tribunal to rule he was unfairly dismissed by the bank after it found he was guilty of gross misconduct in 2013.

The bank alleged Mr McHugh had a conflict of interest in being an official of Galway United Football Club, at a time when he facilitated personal loans to a number of Galway people, designed to benefit the club, which was in financial difficulty.

The bank’s allegation of a conflict of interest amounting to gross misconduct was upheld by Mr Connaughton in the appeal which he heard in 2014.

Ercus Stewart SC for Mr McHugh told the tribunal on Thursday that Mr Connaughton had been the “wrong person” to decide on the internal appeal, because of his history of association with the bank.

Mr Stewart said Mr McHugh’s side had sought a list of three possible adjudicators for the internal appeal, from whom they would nominate one person, but the bank had insisted on Mr Connaughton.

Mr Stewart also questioned Mr Connaughton’s role in now giving evidence before the tribunal, as “a witness for the bank”.

However Mr Connaughton said his shareholding in AIB amounted to just 19 shares jointly held with his wife. Mr Connaughton said “questions had already been posed” about his appointment in correspondence with Mr McHugh’s solicitor before the appeal, “and at no stage” was there an objection to his hearing the case. He said he did not feel his association created a difficulty in the hearing. He noted that in the past he had also “acted against the bank”.

Mr Connaughton said he “did not approach this task with a view to simply endorsing the bank’s decision that [Mr McHugh] should be dismissed.” But he said he was “stunned” when Mr McHugh insisted there was no conflict of interest over loans benefiting the club.

Mr McHugh told the tribunal he had worked for the bank for 37 years and his career went well until he took a case for bullying against a senior official, which he said was upheld.

Mr McHugh said he was a “human being. A husband, a father and a son” and an “ordinary person”, who had tried to do his job properly. He said he “wasn’t trying to do anything wrong. I thought I was doing the right thing”, he said.

Counsel for AIB Brian O’Moore objected to the bullying case being detailed “in public” as he said Mr McHugh had settled a case in relation to this and had been paid a sum of money.

The case continues.