AN ADMINISTRATIVE manager who claims she was demoted and transferred after she texted the Lord’s Prayer to colleagues is to get an early hearing of her High Court action over disciplinary procedures taken by her employer.
Alicia Long, Derriturn, Co Kildare, obtained a temporary injunction last month restraining Harvey Norman (Ireland) Ltd from holding a hearing into accusations by the company of gross misconduct over the text sent to colleagues in the Naas, Co Kildare, branch where she works.
Ms Long asked the court yesterday to keep the injunction in place pending the full hearing of her action over the company’s disciplinary procedures.
Mr Justice Michael Hanna, after hearing from both sides, said it was a case that should go to a full hearing as soon as possible. He directed that Ms Long should turn up for work at the company’s Rathfarnham branch and continue to be paid as an administrative manager until the outcome of the full action, to be heard next month.
Ms Long claims she was subjected to disproportionate treatment after sending the text which arose, she said, after she was upset following a counselling meeting with her manager about her work in January.
She said she went to one disciplinary hearing about the texting matter, at which the demotion and transfer was imposed. She claims she is entitled under her contract to an internal appeal over that.
The company denies those claims and says the procedure in relation to disciplinary matters is set down in a staff handbook. It also claims Ms Long sent the text message to two staff members and “ranted” at a junior member of staff the following day.
In an affidavit, Ms Long, a mother of two, said she had not meant any malice by sending the text. A Barbados national, she said she considered herself a spiritual person and sending this type of message was perfectly acceptable in her country. While she accepted it should not have been sent to colleagues, she did not mean any offence by it.
She acknowledged she had “a problem” with her immediate manager and had lodged a complaint but denied ranting at a junior colleague.
Frank Callanan SC, for Ms Long, said this was “quite an extraordinary case in which all sense of proportion has been lost”.
Mr Justice Hanna gave the parties time to talk about a possible mediation but was told, following a short adjournment, there had been no agreement on this option.