Dismissal claim against Noble foundation fails

A former employee of the Christina Noble Children's Foundation, who pursued a claim for constructive dismissal against the charity…

A former employee of the Christina Noble Children's Foundation, who pursued a claim for constructive dismissal against the charity, has lost her case before an Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Elizabeth Moran, who left her job in June last year, also lost a claim under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.

In a written determination, the tribunal found there were "no sufficient grounds to justify the claimant holding herself out as being constructively dismissed by the respondent". Also "no inference of guilt" could be drawn from a "holding suspension" Ms Moran had been placed on during an investigation into missing funds at the charity.

In her evidence, Ms Moran claimed she was threatened by Christina Noble at a meeting at the Lucan Spa hotel in Dublin last year, and was subjected to a bag search by Ms Noble's daughter, Helenita Pistolas, at an earlier meeting on June 3rd, 2004.

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At this meeting, she claimed she had been advised to leave her place of work. Due to her treatment by the charity, she said it was impossible for her to return.

However, the tribunal said Ms Moran could not explain why the alleged behaviour and threats by Ms Noble at the Lucan Spa Hotel meeting had not been mentioned in a letter to the foundation from her solicitor, dated July 27th, 2004. This was despite the letter persisting in asserting that Ms Pistolas had made allegations against her which Ms Moran had since conceded were not the case.

The tribunal added that counsel for the charity had stressed that the claims were being made for the first time at the hearing last month. But it noted that Ms Moran said she had given her solicitor the details of that meeting.

Despite assurances provided to her after the June 3rd incident, by both the foundation's then chairman Ronnie Delaney, and Ms Noble, Ms Moran had not returned to work as requested on the following Tuesday, June 8th.The tribunal said the alleged threats by Ms Noble against Ms Moran "are not consistent with the founder's undertaking to ensure that the claimant was paid her outstanding wages".

The ruling added: "There has to be some doubt as to the accuracy of the claimant's recollection of the events on the evening of 3rd June, 2004.

"The claimant failed to report for work on Tuesday 8th June and could offer no explanation for such failure when requested to do so."