A FORMER casino dealer in Limerick city who was dismissed after it was discovered a customer at her table had been cheating has been awarded €36,000 by the Employment Appeals Tribunal for unfair dismissal.
Aylamba Chocken, of Moyross, Limerick, had worked at the Fitzpatrick Club on Pery Square since August 2009. She was dismissed in April 2010.
Ms Chocken became pregnant in November 2009. She told her employers the following month.
On February 24th, 2010, a security man approached her table and removed a customer. The man had been cheating, and was thrown out. Ms Chocken was given a written warning “for failure to perform her duties by allowing players to cheat at her table”.
She told the tribunal she was given no chance to explain herself. Her manager told the tribunal that once she was shown the CCTV footage, there was nothing she could have said to defend herself. Ms Chocken was told on April 29th that she was being sacked.
The tribunal concluded Ms Chocken’s pregnancy was the true catalyst for her dismissal. While it noted the club had since put in procedures for handling maternity situations, it was not evident any such procedures existed in April 2010. It noted the cheating incident had never been fully investigated, and found Ms Chocken was only issued with one warning.