Shelbourne manager challenges dismissal

A LONG-SERVING manager at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, has secured a temporary High Court order restraining her dismissal.

Elizabeth O’Neill (62), of Serpentine Road, Ballsbridge, who started work in the hotel in 1972, claims the hotel company’s move to demote her before informing her last month she was being made redundant was unwarranted and unfair and she is extremely concerned as she has no other income.

Her dedication and service were such that she had received glowing tributes from many hotel guests, including from the ambassador of Jordan, Ms O’Neill said.

Ercus Stewart SC, for Ms O’Neill, was yesterday granted interim orders by Mr Justice Bryan McMahon restraining his client’s dismissal. The matter was returned to February 16th.

Ms O’Neill said in an affidavit she worked in the Shelbourne for over 30 “happy years” since 1972, including 20 years as manager of the Lord Mayor’s Lounge, and had “an excellent rapport” with customers. She and all the staff were made redundant in March 2005 when the hotel closed down for extensive refurbishment.

She was re-employed in June 2007 by Torriam Hotel Operating Co Ltd as lobby ambassador and about March 2008 was offered the position of Lord Mayor’s Lounge manager. In a written announcement in April 2008, hotel manager Liam Doyle said it gave him great pleasure to announce her promotion “and described me in glowing terms”. She was given a contract with a start date of May 1st, 2008, and specifying a probationary period of six months “although I had satisfactorily performed these same duties for approximately 20 years”.

She worked extremely hard but had to deal with many problems caused principally by short staffing and was “greatly taken aback” when heavily criticised by her manager, Kris Classens, at a meeting in November 2008. She was later told areas of her work required improvement and her probation was being extended to January 1st, 2009. This was “very unfair” as she had to contend with numerous difficulties outside her control. She believed management was putting pressure on her to force her to leave.

The human resources manager failed to respond to a letter of December 23rd last outlining her concerns. On December 31st she was told the hotel was no longer having a manager in the Lord Mayor’s Lounge and she was offered a position of supervisor at a salary of €26,000, a significant drop from her €40,000 salary and involving her reporting to a much younger and less experienced assistant manager. She was “devastated by this unwarranted demotion”.

On January 27th, she again objected to the “degrading demotion” at a meeting with Mr Doyle who said there would be no job for her when she was due to resume work on January 30th. On January 29th, she was told her position had been made redundant from December 31st, 2008.