Ex-radio producer gets €11,500 for unfair dismissal

A FORMER producer with WLR FM in Waterford has been awarded more than €11,500 for being unfairly sacked after she chose to stand in local elections.

The radio station claimed the position of Jacqueline Kelly as producer on WLR FM’s leading news and current affairs programme, Deise FM, was compromised by her decision to contest a seat for Waterford City Council in 2009.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal has ordered the station to pay €11,521 in compensation to Ms Kelly, after finding that she was unfairly dismissed from her job in April 2009.

Ms Kelly, aged 48, from Shanagarry, Collins Avenue, Waterford unsuccessfully contested the local elections in 2004 and 2009.

During the hearing, the station’s managing director Des Whelan said he refused her request for a career break in February 2009 in order to campaign in the upcoming local elections.

The tribunal heard that Ms Kelly was informed at a meeting on March 25, 2009 that she could not continue to be producer of the programme if she ran as a candidate in the local election.

Station director of programmes, Billy McCarthy, who also presents Deise FM, said Ms Kelly reassured them at her interview that she had no interest in running for election again.

The EAT ruled that WLR FM was well aware of Ms Kelly’s political background before she was hired and the station did not consider it a bar to employing her. It found that it was not reasonable for WLR FM to dismiss Ms Kelly on the basis that it had advised her by letter in February 2009 that her decision to run in the local elections would not compromise the programme.