Former FAI development officer wins unfair dismissal case

Former Football Association of Ireland development officer Paul Sheridan has been awarded a five-figure compensation sum after the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) deemed his redundancy in 2010 to be unfair.

Mr Sheridan’s eight-year employment with the FAI was ended in 2010 when he was one of three development officers to be made redundant.

Following hearings in January and June, the three-person EAT committee have upheld his unfair dismissal case under selection criteria for redundancy.

Mr Sheridan had been appointed in 2002 by then-technical director Brian Kerr as the FAI's development officer for the southeast of Ireland.

In evidence, Miriam Malone from the FAI said the coach's area of responsibility had been refined to the county of Wicklow by the time he was laid off.

The tribunal, however, said the association should have considered redeploying Mr Sheridan into a different area when it embarked upon a cost-cutting exercise in 2010.

While recognising that the association needed to rationalise and reorganise, the tribunal said Mr Sheridan had scored better on the grounds of qualification, experience and length of service than his colleague retained to work in Wicklow.

Compensation
The FAI has six weeks in which to pay the compensation or appeal the decision to the Circuit Court. Last night, the association declined to say which of two options it intended accepting.

The ruling is the latest in a series of successful cases pursued by former employees of the FAI.

Former Ireland senior manager Eoin Hand recently won his case for unfair dismissal, while last December the EAT was told by representatives of Packie Bonner's former personal assistant, Vanessa Tucker, that her case had been settled after the first hearing.

Seán McCaffrey, the former under-17 and under-19 manager, also had his action settled after he was sacked in 2010.