In my Article titled “Employers take note : Employment Tribunals are making large Awards” of the 11th April 2012, I advise employers to take care before instituting Disciplinary or corrective action against employees.
Any mistaken assumption by employers that Employment Law issues need not be taken too seriously as Decrees made by Tribunals are generally low in value has now been corrected by the Claims of O’Brien v Persian Properties trading as O’Callaghan Hotels (DEC-E2012-010) where the Equality Officer in the Equality Tribunal ordered the respondent pay the complainant a total of €315,000.00 compensation and the case of Paul Taylor v David Lloyd Leisure Limited (UD 2366/2009) (MN2191/2009) where the Employment Appeals Tribunal awarded the claimant €280,000.00 compensation under the Unfair Dismissals Acts and an additional €19,038.42.00 under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts.
While one cannot prevent an Employment Law Claim being issued by an aggrieved employee a sensible employer will ensure to take timely advice to minimize cost.
For further information on these cases can be accessed on the Articles section of the Morgan McManus website.