An accountant let go after nearly 18 years working for a Dundalk arcade and bingo hall operator has said she was told to apply to the State-run social protection fund for a redundancy lump-sum despite the businessman informing her that his company was “flying”.
The ex-employee, Siobhán McDonagh, is seeking nearly €40,000 in lost earnings at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against James P McCann Ireland Ltd, and claims there was no reason for her to be made redundant at all.
Ms McDonagh, the tribunal heard, was earning just over €50,000 as a financial controller for the company, having started work for its founder, Jim McCann, at another company of his, Kimble Gaming Ltd, in 2007, and transferring upon its closure in 2023.
Mr McCann once had interests in 12 different businesses, including amusement arcades, “private members’ clubs”, a bingo hall and the Kimble Gaming arcade machine factory in Dundalk, but his family was now left with just two arcades in Dublin – both in “extreme financial difficulties”, the tribunal was told.
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Ms McDonagh said she was “laughed at” by her employer when she asked about her lump sum after being told she was being made redundant in January this year. “He said no; I would have to claim my redundancy off the State.”
She told the WRC that despite receiving her redundancy from the Social Protection Fund, her understanding was that the company she was employed by was “doing well”.
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“I asked Jim was he going to liquidate it,” Ms McDonagh said. “Why should I liquidate when the company is doing well, flying, and making loads of money?” Ms McDonagh said.
Adjudication officer Úna Glazier-Farmer asked Ms McDonagh whether she and “anything to support that contention the company was ‘flying’”.
“I probably shouldn’t be saying this – it was a cash business, so it was what they were putting through the banks then. At the time I was there, the company was doing well,” she said. She said she no longer had access to the company’s accounts, but hat it had been “profitable” when she was there.
Seoirse McCann, the company’s managing director, told the hearing that his father stepped back from management of the business on health grounds in the summer.
He said he knew nothing of his father’s alleged comments about the business when they were put to him by his representative, Peter Dunlea of Peninsula Business Services.
“Any truth to the phrase ‘it’s flying’?” Mr Dunlea asked.
“No. Both companies are in extreme financial difficulties,” the managing director said.
James P McCann Ireland Ltd had acted as a “management company”, providing accounts, payroll processing and maintenance services to a number of “affiliated” companies, Mr McCann said.
However, after the closure of a bingo hall in Dundalk last year, the respondent was servicing just two arcades in Dublin, one in Clondalkin, managed directly, and another in Eden Quay, run by another affiliated company, Starville Promotions Ltd, the tribunal was told.
“At the time, Siobhán was the only full-time office worker outside day-to-day operations. We felt if we outsourced the work to an external accountant, it would reduce our costs. The saving was significant, it would have saved us around €30,000 per year,” Mr McCann said.
Conor McCrave of Setanta Solicitors, for the complainant, said that the company made “no effort to engage” with his client in a formal redundancy process and simply decided to let her go, arguing that rendered it an unfair dismissal.
Mr Dunlea said it was “not an unfair dismissal”, arguing there was leeway for a small business in the circumstances. “The selection for this redundancy is genuine. While we acknowledge the processes followed were not the most robust under law, the case law says it ‘may’ result in an unfair dismissal.”
