Courts

Inland Fisheries CEO ‘surreptitiously’ influenced decision to unfairly dismiss director, WRC finds

Former director of IFI Patrick Gorman awarded €38,500 for unfair dismissal over personal use of tractor

The chief executive of the State fisheries agency has been criticised by the Workplace Relations Commission for attempting to 'surreptitiously' influence a disciplinary process that led to the unfair sacking of a director. Photograph: iStock

Stephen Bourke
Thu Jan 4 2024 - 13:51

The chief executive of the State fisheries agency has been criticised by the Workplace Relations Commission for attempting to “surreptitiously” influence a disciplinary process that led to the unfair sacking of a director for having his 13-year-old son drive a government-owned tractor on a public road at night.

The tribunal has ruled that Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) treated former director Patrick Gorman unfairly from the moment he was suspended on foot of allegations in an anonymous letter – and that it went too far in later sacking him when suspension or demotion might have been more appropriate sanctions.

In its decision the WRC also said the organisation’s CEO, Francis O’Donnell, “left large gaps” in IFI’s defence of Mr Gorman’s Unfair Dismissals Act complaint by not attending to give evidence to the tribunal in July this year.

Mr Gorman’s trade union, Siptu, said he was not acting rationally when he allowed his son drive the tractor due to the shock of being suspended from his job of 37 years after being “ambushed” with allegations contained in an anonymous letter which had been sent to IFI.

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Mr Gorman said his suspension became the talk of the town within hours and that his family had been “destroyed” by false rumours on the “bush telegraph” in Cong, Co Mayo, alleging that he had been sacked for fraud.

The WRC has now upheld Mr Gorman’s complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act, awarding him €38,500 in compensation.

Mr Gorman said he was “completely oblivious” to an anonymous letter alleging he was making personal use of an IFI tractor until he arrived to meet his line manager at the agency’s hatchery at Cong on February 1st, 2022.

To his surprise, the IFI’s chief executive, Mr O’Donnell, was there too and told him: “We’ve received a protected disclosure, an anonymous letter. It’s about you,” Mr Gorman said.

The CEO then told him he was suspended and gave him a letter to that effect, he said.

After delivering the tractor back to the Cong Hatchery that night, Mr Gorman and his son then brought a boat belonging to IFI to his home. The following morning he took the boat out alone on Lough Mask to investigate a report of potential eel poaching.

Although none of the allegations made against Mr Gorman in the anonymous letter were upheld, the movements of the tractor, and his use of the boat after his suspension, were also examined in the investigation which followed, and taken as cause to dismiss him with eight weeks’ notice.

The dismissal was upheld on internal appeal in October 2022 and brought to an and 37-and-a-half years’ service by Mr Gorman.

In his decision, adjudicator David James Murphy said Mr Gorman’s evidence on how the tractor ended up at his property was “convincing” and he was satisfied it was “not unusual” for staff to keep IFI equipment at home.

He found the decision to suspend Mr Gorman with immediate effect was “obviously punitive and unfair”.

“From the outset of this process the complainant was not being treated fairly or reasonably,” he wrote.

The adjudicator wrote that the CEO, Mr O’Donnell, sought to influence the investigation off-the-record.

“He explicitly asked to speak with the investigator privately. The investigator is to be commended for refusing to facilitate this and in recording the request in his report.

“I do not know whether the CEO’s attempt to influence the disciplinary process surreptitiously was an isolated event or not,” he wrote.

“The CEO also took it upon himself to find and review the CCTV footage of (Mr Gorman) returning the tractor to the Cong Hatchery. Out of context this action would just appear unusual, but alongside these other issues it does seem like the CEO was targeting (Mr Gorman) for some reason.”

Mr O’Donnell’s failure to attend the hearing or give evidence “left large gaps in the respondent’s case”, he added.

Letting Mr Gorman’s teenage son drive the tractor “was obviously a serious error, but it was also a unique situation” given that the complainant had just been served with a “sudden and unfair suspension” after 37 years’ “unblemished” service, he added.

Mr Murphy’s conclusion was that the decision to sack Mr Gorman was not a reasonable sanction and had not been arrived at fairly.

Mr Murphy said he was not in a position to grant the reinstatement order sought by Mr Gorman because the relationship between the parties had “functionally ceased”.

He said he would reduce the award by 50 per cent because Mr Gorman had made “a serious error which could have justified demotion or unpaid suspension”. He ordered IFI to pay Mr Gorman €38,500 for unfair dismissal.

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