Group fired supervisor for ‘bugging’ board meeting

A Limerick-based community education group fired a supervisor after finding that she ‘bugged’ a board meeting by placing a recorder in a flower basket.

St Mary’s Community Adult Education Group Ltd sacked Community Employment (CE) supervisor, Mary Donnelly after concluding that Ms Donnelly placed the recorder in the flower basket.

Ms Donnelly brought an unfair dismissal action against the group to the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT). However, the EAT has now found, in a majority ruling, that Ms Donnelly was not unfairly dismissed.

The board of the adult education group was meeting on March 26, 2013, to discuss a separate disciplinary issue relating to Ms Donnelly’s work.

However, the device recorded only 1.43 seconds of the meeting after the it was discovered by a VEC teacher, referred to as EM, after she removed an A4 sheet of paper that was covering the recorder in the basket.

The device was taken to the gardaí and was later returned to the group.

Ms Donnelly was suspended on April 4, 2013 with pay and was told that there would be a disciplinary meeting six days later where a decision was taken to dismiss her.

At the EAT hearing held over three days in February and April of this year, a director of the centre, referred to as BT, said he was “quite shocked” that such a device was in the basket.

EM told the hearing that she had a strong working relationship with Ms Donnelly. She said that Ms Donnelly was a visionary but saw that she and the board were going in different ways.

EM saw Ms Donnelly entering the room with the flower basket holding it close to herand place it in an area where there were decommissioned computers. EM said she later listened to the recorder and identified Ms Donnelly’s voice on it. Ms Donnelly said that she never put a recording device in the basket. She told the hearing that she had no motive.

She said she was unaware of any meeting scheduled to take place in the centre that evening.

She admitted that she had problems with two of the directors on the board over the previous five years.

Ms Donnelly said that the first she heard of the recording device was from one of the Community Employment (CE) participants.

In its determination, the EAT noted that there was a conflict of evidence .

It found “not one person witnessed the placing of a recording device in the basket in the computer room but on the balance of probability the tribunal is satisfied that the device was placed there by the claimant”.

In a majority ruling, the EAT found that Ms Donnelly was not unfairly dismissed but that she was entitled to outstanding holiday pay of €1,545.