A trainee solicitor dismissed after four months working at a Dublin-based legal firm has been awarded €10,000 in compensation after the employer admitted having failed to observe the proper procedures when ending the person’s employment.
The trainee, whose name was not included in the report of the proceedings published by the Labour Court, had started work with Michael Kelleher Solicitors in October of last year but was called into a meeting in a room at the Courts of Criminal Justice on February 3rd and dismissed with immediate effect.
The person, who subsequently made a complaint in Section 20(1) of The Industrial Relations Act 1969, had been given no warning with regard to the purpose of the meeting and had not been offered the opportunity to be represented, the court was told.
In its submission to the court, the company said the trainee had struggled from the outset of his employment and that it had instigated a system of weekly meetings to help him but that despite this the employee’s performance was not of the required standard.
It said it had issued two verbal warnings but subsequently acknowledged it did not record these or inform the trainee of their formal nature, something the court found to have “defeats the purpose of the warning”.
The company also acknowledged it did not have a disciplinary procedure and that the trainee had not been supplied with a written copy of his terms and conditions of employment.
It accepted the requirements with regard to notifying him what the meeting at which he was dismissed was about and affording him an opportunity to be accompanied were not complied with.
At the time of his dismissal, the trainee solicitor’s salary was €37,000. In addition to losing this income, he claimed his ability to complete his qualifications had been impacted.
In its decision, the court said “the fact that the employer is a small solicitor firm does not take from the requirements to afford their workers fair process. It is clear from the submissions both oral and written that the Worker in this case was not afforded any process or opportunity to engage with the Employer as required.”
The court said the company should pay him €10,000 in compensation.
