Fire service supervisor loses sacking appeal bid

A supervisor in the Limerick fire service was dismissed from his post after an investigation into a complaint of sexual harassment and harassment was made by a female colleague against him.

Jon Monnickendam lost his job in October 2011 after independent consultants hired by Limerick City Council to investigate 13 separate allegations found adverse findings against the fireman in respect of four.

Mr Monnickendam had appealed the sacking to the Employment Appeals Tribunal, which ruled that his bid had failed.

At the hearing, the unnamed female complainant alleged that the harassment/sexual harassment included name-calling, sexual innuendo, insinuation that she was a lesbian, and knowledge of Mr Monnickendam exposing himself.

Mr Monnickendam was the woman’s supervisor in the fire service emergency control room and the tribunal report records that, initially, the woman saw the name-calling as “banter”.

However, it progressed to the stage that she verbally complained about the situation as early as 2008 and sent a document outlining her allegations to Mr Monnickendam’s supervisor on June 3, 2010. The woman had a meeting on October 26, 2010, to elaborate on the complaints.

At the hearing — held over two days in March — a female colleague gave evidence of Mr Monnickendam exposing himself to her on two occasions; the first she “laughed off”, she but took offence the second time and asked his partner, who also worked for the council, to ensure it did not happen again.

An emergency control operator, who had Mr Monnickendam as his supervisor, said he witnessed Mr Monnickendam calling the complainant names and saw that it upset her.

He said this type of “banter” was not the norm even though there is “an offensive sense of humour and a level of sexual banter” within the council.

Mr Monnickendam gave evidence and did not accept that he was bullying, harassing, or sexually harassing the complainant.