Security guard 'unfairly dismissed' after showing female guest ‘sex tape' of herself

By Gordon Deegan

The CityWest hotel in Dublin has been found to have unfairly dismissed a security guard who permitted a female guest to view a ‘sex tape’ of herself and a man on the hotel premises.

In the case, the Labour Court has found that the decision by CityWest to dismiss Nicholas Reddin was procedurally unfair and has awarded Mr Reddin €6,000.

However, the Labour Court found that Mr Reddin was 80% responsible for his own dismissal.

The decision by the Labour Court overturns an earlier ruling by an Adjudication Officer at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) who found that Mr Reddin's dismissal was fair.

No parties were named in the WRC report but as Mr Reddin appealed the WRC ruling to the Labour Court, the parties are now named.

In the case, a colleague on October 31st 2015 alerted Mr Reddin to hotel CCTV footage showing the two hotel guests engaging in a sexual act, but not intercourse, on a hotel corridor from the previous night.

The following night in the hotel bar when Mr Reddin was trying to get guests to finish their drinks, he made the female guest aware of what he had seen on the hotel security cameras.

According to his own account given at a disciplinary hearing, he asked her “if she knew what she did the night before”.

Mr Reddin then offered to show the woman the footage and the woman and a friend went to view the CCTV footage at the hotel security base.

The woman subsequently made a complaint to the hotel over Mr Reddin’s conduct and that he had subjected herself and her friend to offensive and inappropriate language and that several sexual remarks were made towards her.

Mr Reddin told the Labour Court hearing that he didn’t engage in any offensive behaviour towards the woman.

In the hotel bar before viewing the footage, she said that Mr Reddin had told her that he was aware that she had been kissing a man on CCTV.

As a result of the woman’s complaint, CityWest launched disciplinary proceedings against Mr Reddin and he was dismissed at a meeting on December 10, 2015 with immediate effect.

The dismissal letter stated that “due to the nature of the allegations against you, all of which you accepted to be true, the company was left in a position where the bond of trust between the employer and the employee had been completely destroyed, rendering your position with the company untenable”.

Mr Reddin was dismissed for displaying inappropriate and offensive behaviour towards a guest in the hotel, and flagrant disregard for the procedures within the hotel by allowing two guests of the hotel to enter the security base and to view CCTV footage.

In his evidence at the Labour Court, Mr Reddin said that he showed the footage to the woman as she had asked to view it and that he was worried for her.

Mr Reddin stated that it appeared to him that the male involved in the incident was dragging the female guest and that what he was doing was malicious.

The hotel stated that if Mr Reddin had considered what he had seen on the CCTV to be an assault on the premises he was obliged to report that to the security manager, HR and the Gardaí via an incident report.

The hotel said that Mr Reddin did none of these things and in his evidence, Mr Reddin said that he had no chance to do an incident report.

He said that three or four other male colleagues had looked at the CCTV and had laughed while watching it. Mr Reddin said that he had worked at the hotel since 2006 and never had any disciplinary issues before.

In its findings, the Labour Court noted that Mr Reddin made no incident report as regards the incident involving the female guest.

Mr Reddin’s security colleague who played the footage for the two female guests was also subject to disciplinary process.

The Labour Court found that a senior Citywest employee conducted the two disciplinary processes of each men and as she failed to share the account of the other security man with Mr Reddin, it was a failing of the disciplinary process. The Court also found that there were failing on its other aspects of the disciplinary process.

The Labour Court found that “in all the circumstances the court finds that the dismissal of the Appellant (Mr Reddin) was procedurally unfair".

A spokesman for CityWest said today that it had 'no comment' to make on the outcome of the case.