DUNNES STORES head of finance Larry Howard has claimed before the High Court he has been placed on “garden leave” by the company for no valid reason for three months now. He said that, following alleged “veiled and open threats” by Dunnes chief Margaret Heffernan, he is concerned the company may move to dismiss him.

Mr Howard claimed Ms Heffernan had referred to him and another executive in a demeaning manner at a meeting in June 2010 where she allegedly said she “either wanted f***ing men or mice”.

When summonsed to Ms Heffernan’s office last September, she “told me not ‘to look so worried’ as she was eating her lunch. She would not ‘sack’ me ‘yet’,” Mr Howard also claimed.

The attitude of Ms Heffernan and other senior executives had changed after Andrew Street, former chief operations officer of Dunnes, left the company about December 2009 and went to rival Superquinn where he is now chief executive, Mr Howard said. He had been accused since Mr Street’s departure of being “an Andrew man”.

Mr Howard, New Road, Greystones, Co Wicklow, claims there is no valid reason for his exclusion from work. His counsel Michael McDowell SC secured permission yesterday from Mr Justice Roderick Murphy to serve short notice of his client’s proceedings on Dunnes. The judge made the matter returnable for next Monday.

Mr McDowell said his client was in “an appalling limbo” having been sent on “garden leave” and was in a state of semi-suspension which suggested there was something wrong with him, counsel said. His reputation was going to suffer and Mr Howard wanted the issue decided one way or another.

In an affidavit, Mr Howard said he began employment with Dunnes in April 2007 and was promoted to head of finance in June that year.

Following Mr Street’s exit, the attitude of senior executives of Dunnes, particularly members of the extended Dunne/ Heffernan family, changed towards him.

He believed he was treated differently for reasons which he could only assume were based on some unjustified presumption he was going to leave and join Mr Street in Superquinn.

He said he attended a meeting on June 1st, 2010, with Margaret Heffernan, Noel Fox, Anne Heffernan and Sharon McMahon (a niece of Ms Heffernan) at which Margaret Heffernan challenged him that figures produced by a newly introduced Oracle software package in the food division were erroneous and told him “if you don’t get yourself up to speed on Oracle, you’re wasting your time here”.

Mr Fox and Ms Heffernan discussed the issue among themselves for some time and Mrs Heffernan had stated: “I haven’t seen anyone fired. I haven’t seen a constructive dismissal case,” he said. He believed such comments were in the nature of a veiled threat.

He believed a remark by Ms Heffernan “he’s not effective” was also a reference to him. Mr Fox had said “he is effective – he is still holding money [on suppliers]”, he said.

When asked what he was doing, he replied he was working on the group budget and other matters, and Ms Heffernan asked him why he was spending time on those and referred to them as “bulls***”, he said. He said Ms Heffernan had stated: “We have accountants coming out of our ears” and, by her facial expression and tone of voice, was inappropriately critical of an accountant.

Ms Heffernan also referred to him as a “floater” and said she was paying him too much money “to float”, he said. Over the subsequent months, he was removed from responsibility for a significant number of functions, he said.

He said Ms Heffernan had, on November 22nd, 2010, accused him of being an “Andrew man” and asked if he had been approached by Mr Street to leave Dunnes for Superquinn. He had confirmed his commitment to Dunnes, Mr Howard said.

Matters came to a head on December 2nd, 2010, when he was phoned by Margaret Heffernan about an error which he had noted in the September/October 2010 VAT return and brought to the attention of the financial accountant and Mr Fox.

Mr Howard said Ms Heffernan asked him to explain what the matter had to do with him and asked why should Dunnes repay the VAT if it had always been done in that particular way. He said he replied repayment was “the right thing to do”. Mrs Heffernan became “very animated” and told him: “That is exactly why you have no future in Dunnes Stores,” he said.

After that conversation, Mr Howard said he took legal advice. His solicitors wrote on his behalf to Ms Heffernan on December 20th, 2010. The following day, he was asked to attend a meeting with Anne Heffernan and Sharon McMahon and asked to go home while the issues his solicitors had raised were investigated. He was told it was not a disciplinary action, he said.

Mr Howard referred to several exchanges between solicitors after that and to discussions about an exit package for him. On advice from his solicitors, he said he attended work on March 7th and Anne Heffernan told him she was directing him to go home and his salary would be paid.