Store must pay ex-worker €84k for redundancy attempt

A TIPPERARY hardware store has been ordered to pay €84,000 compensation to a former staff member who it tried to make redundant while he was recovering from heart surgery.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled that Doherty’s Hardware of Roscrea should pay its former general manager, PJ Maxwell, the maximum award of two year’s salary for unfairly selecting him for redundancy.

The tribunal heard that Mr Maxwell of Rathnaleen, Nenagh, Co Tipperary, had worked as general manager at the store between April 2000 and December 2005 when he suffered a heart attack and required bypass surgery.

Mr Maxwell said he told the store’s accountant on April 24, 2006, when asked how much longer he would be away from work that he had an appointment to see a cardiologist two months later.

However, Mr Maxwell also indicated that he might be able to return in a part-time capacity before that date.

He claimed he was told at another meeting with the accountant the following month that the firm’s directors, Seamus and Michael Doherty, did not want him to return to work.

Mr Maxwell said he received a letter from the two directors on May 31, 2006 claiming the position of general manager was being made redundant from July 14 that year.

Awarding Mr Maxwell the maximum compensation under EAT legislation, the tribunal said Doherty’s had never inquired in a formal sense about Mr Maxwell’s state of health during his recovery from surgery.

One of the directors had given evidence that he just assumed that Mr Maxwell was not returning to work at the store.

The EAT said it was satisfied that the company had decided that having learnt to do without Mr Maxwell during his absence on sick leave, it had decided to make his position redundant.

The tribunal said such grounds for selecting Mr Maxwell for redundancy were unfair.