Creche worker gets €10k for being unfairly dismissed over confidentiality breach

Employee was sacked for discussing a child attending the creche while out socialising

A creche worker who was sacked after breaching confidentiality when discussing a parent's child with another person while out socialising has won her unfair dismissal action.

In the case, Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) Adjudication Officer, Roger McGrath, ordered the creche to pay the creche worker €10,400 for her unfair dismissal in October 2019 and for two other workplace breaches.

The creche dismissed the worker for gross misconduct after finding that she breached confidentiality when discussing a child attending the creche with a brother of the child while out socialising.

The child’s mother made a written complaint to the creche concerning the breach of confidentiality and the creche dismissed the worker after she declined to apologise to the parent concerned and failed to turn up to a meeting to discuss the issue.

In his findings, Mr McGrath found that on the balance of probabilities, the worker did breach confidentiality.

He added, however: “Although a breach of confidentiality constitutes a serious breach of discipline and there were grounds to dismiss, I find the sanction of dismissal to be disproportionate."

Mr McGrath stated that this was the complainant's first breach of the confidentiality policy.

He said: 

A lesser sanction could have and should have been considered.

Mr McGrath ordered the creche to pay the child practitioner €9,600 for the unfair dismissal and €800 for two other workplace breaches.

The creche stated that the worker initially admitted to discussing the child and is alleged to have told her bosses: “I know I shouldn’t have anything about the child and I’m sorry.” 

The creche stated that the worker agreed to write a letter of apology to the child’s mother but then told her bosses that she would not do this as she was advised by her union that this would be admitting her guilt.

The creche told the WRC that if he had not acted in the way it did concerning the creche worker, “the parent could have claimed against the creche and this in turn would have been shared with other parents and could have catastrophic consequences for the business”.

Concerning a previous incident, the creche told the WRC that on September 25, 2018, the worker was issued with a final written warning for bringing alcohol into the creche.

The warning stated that if there was one more issue with the complainant, she would be dismissed immediately.

At the WRC hearing, the worker strenuously denied the allegation that she breached confidentiality. 

She stated that she was dismissed on the basis of a fundamentally flawed investigation and disciplinary process which denied her right to fair procedure and natural justice.

Reputation damage

The former creche employee said she had not written the letter of apology because she had done nothing wrong.

She told the WRC hearing that this was not just a case of someone losing their job; her reputation was also damaged.

She said she had spoken with a brother of the child referred to but not about the child.

In his findings, Mr McGrath found that overall, he found that the creche operator “failed to adhere to the basic requirements of natural justice”.

He stated: “On the face of it, no thought was given to the rights of the complainant to fair procedures. I find this was an unfair dismissal.”

Mr McGrath found that “the decision to dismiss was made without an investigation of merit having taken place”.

He added that the creche worker had no chance to prepare a defence, nor had she a chance to arrange for a representative to attend with her a meeting at the creche to discuss the issue.