The personnel and development manager of Bord na gCon was granted a temporary High Court injunction yesterday restraining the organisation engaging in any form of recruitment process for the post of personnel and development manager or human resources manager.
Mr Dermot Cross also obtained an interim order, effective until Monday next, preventing the Bord from directing performance of his functions as personnel and development manager by anybody other than him, save for persons retained on a temporary basis, pending his return to work from sick leave.
For the past year, Mr Cross has been on certified sick leave, his counsel, Mr John Punch SC, told the court. He expected he would be able to go back to his job in the near future. On February 16th last, a newspaper advertisement was published seeking applications for the position of Human Resources Manager.
Mr Cross was upset to discover the responsibilities proposed to be assigned to the person recruited was almost exactly similar to and overlapped with those assigned to him.
In an affidavit, Mr Cross said that arising from certain ongoing difficulties he had experienced at work over time, mainly with Mr Michael Field, the Bord's chief executive, he was formally obliged to lodge a complaint of bullying and harassment against the chief executive to the chairman of the company, Mr Paschal Taggart.
An investigation then commenced into the claims made by him. He was advised the purported investigation was fundamentally flawed and in breach of fair procedures. He sought to have the company hold a truly independent inquiry into his claims but to no avail. He instructed solicitors to issue proceedings against the company in November 2001. Generally, those proceedings sought relief in respect of bullying and harassment, exclusion, breach of contract and the unilateral alteration of his working terms.
At present, said Mr Cross, he was on certified sick leave from work, diagnosed as suffering from stress. He was also suffering from a separate physical ailment and had undergone a number of medical procedures and operations as a result. He was making excellent progress medically and hoped when the physical ailment had been resolved to return to his duties and responsibilities with the Bord.