Headford Co-operative Mart Limited has been ordered to pay €26,250 to a former interim manager of the mart after the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found she had been unfairly dismissed and was entitled to financial losses associated with the dismissal.

The Co Galway mart failed to prove that its dismissal of Joyce Holleran Whelan was the result, wholly or mainly, of a redundancy.

The WRC also found that a series of “serious” complaints and concerns submitted by Ms Holleran were not addressed by the employer.

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Ms Holleran was initially employed as a finance and banking manager with the business, taking up this role on 29 November 2021, before being appointed interim mart manager after the mart’s general manager took long-term sick leave.

Ms Holleran submitted to the WRC that she had been subjected to “bullying and intimidation from some committee members, auctioneers, fellow co-workers and customers” after taking up the interim mart manager role.

One incident allegedly saw Ms Holleran assaulted outside the mart on 4 December 2021 with an electronic cattle prod, which was reported to gardaí, the mart’s chairperson and the board, but no action was taken.

She stated that she had been locked out of a door into the office due to a changing of the locks on the same date and had to seek admittance from other staff by knocking on the door to gain entry.

On 11 December 2021, four staff refused to work alongside her and left, with one of these staff members disapproving of the assault complaint dismantling the mart’s IT systems in an “effort to shut down the business”, a summary of Ms Holleran's case stated.

Termination emails

A new mart committee chaired by Fiachra Craddock was elected on 2 December 2022.

Around four months later on 11 March 2023, Ms Holleran claims that she was sent an email by Mr Craddock outlining a proposal for the termination of her employment.

The mart told the WRC that this offer had been voluntary and was made in good will, having been taken off the table only after it was not accepted within a timeframe agreed.

However, she maintained that she did not see this email until 10 days later when another email from the chair informed her that the offer was no longer available and she was being made redundant.

Later proposals from the complainant had sought in excess of one year’s salary, the mart said.

Ms Holleran stated that she was informed that the mart’s original general manager was returning from sick leave and her previous role with the mart was being made redundant.

The mart contends that the role of finance and banking manager was neither within the business’s budget nor affordable and that it never existed during the tenure of the general manager.

Ms Holleran was informed that she would no longer be required to work her notice period.

The mart also claimed that Ms Holleran “declined to properly engage with the chair of the mart following the cessation of her employment”.

Second complaint not upheld

A second complaint submitted to the WRC by Ms Holleran alleged that she had been penalised for making a protected disclosure to the mart’s chair in December 2022.

The nature of the alleged penalty was that Ms Holleran was not considered as a candidate for mart manager after Mr Craddock stepped down, she said, on foot of her making a protected disclosure on mart finances to another ex-chair.

This was denied by the mart’s current chair and committee, with the WRC adjudication noting a “conflict in the evidence” between the two parties on whether the protected disclosure had been made on the date alleged - 15 December 2022.

This complaint was not deemed well founded in the WRC’s adjudication, as it was not satisfied that there was a sufficient connection between the protected disclosure and the subsequent actions that the former employee claimed amounted to a penalty for.