€50k award for stale snack sacking
The Employment Appeals Tribunal ordered the airline catering firm to pay sacked supervisor Joe Smith €50,899 after ruling that he was unfairly dismissed.
Gate Gourmet, based in Dublin Airport, sacked Mr Smith for gross misconduct following a probe sparked by the gone-off snack. Mr Smith had an unblemished 19-year service record.
The investigation began after one of Gate Gourmet’s customers complained in April 2012 that Gate Gourmet supplied it with a wrap that was out of date since February 2012.
The probe found Mr Smith failed to follow standard operating procedures and Gate Gourmet’s production manager fired him on the grounds that he did not take responsibility for his job as store supervisor; failed to address poor staff performance; the wrap incident; and out-of-date stock and stock control issues.
Mr Smith’s internal appeal failed, with Gate Gourmet saying its reputation had been put at risk.
The EAT found there was a failure of stock control standard operations procedures. However, it found “it was unfair and unreasonable to conclude that the claimant was solely and exclusively responsible for such failure. Termination of employment on the grounds of gross misconduct was a disproportionate sanction in all the circumstances.”
The EAT awarded Mr Smith €45,000 for the unfair dismissal and a further €5,889 in lieu of eight weeks’ minimum notice.
