Former St Hilda's assistant manager awarded €116k

A former assistant general manager of St Hilda's Services has been awarded €116,616 by the Employment Appeals Tribunal, which deemed she was unfairly dismissed after her position was made redundant, without consultation with her, when she returned from maternity leave. Tina Brennan, Glamore, Taughmaconnell, Ballinasloe, took the case against St Hilda's Services for the Mentally Handicapped and was awarded €116,616 by the tribunal, having previously been paid €3,384 in a redundancy payment from St Hilda's. Ms Brennan began working for St Hilda's as assistant general manager in February 2008 and went on maternity leave in 2009. On her return to work in February 2010 she was informed that she was being made redundant by a new interim general manager and she was not required to work her notice. The acting general manager gave evidence to the tribunal and explained that his expertise as a consultant was sought by the board of directors following the untimely death of the founder of St Hilda's, who had also been the general manager. St Hilda's was mainly funded by the HSE and Ms Brennan's post of assistant general manager was created by the general manager as he felt he needed more support, mainly in human resources. While Ms Brennan was on maternity leave the general manager passed away in early July 2009. Without a general manager the board took on the responsibilities of the organisation and recruited the acting general manager until a successor was appointed. As well as the day-to-day running of the organisation, the acting general manager was tasked with looking at re-organisation and recruiting the new general manager/CEO. In September 2009 it was decided that a review of the organisation was to take place with alliances with other organisations high on the agenda. The board was informed that the budget was not to be exceeded and St Hilda's was to come back to the HSE with its views on the alliance. It was agreed that a successor would not be appointed until the review was completed. The review of day-to-day operations began and the acting general manager looked at the shortcomings of the organisation. The budget was announced and it emerged there would cutbacks, likely to be in the region of 7%. In 2010 all staff wages were reduced in order to maintain the same quality frontline services. The tribunal heard from the acting general manager that Ms Brennan's tasks were mainly HR and project based and there were no substantial tasks. The accounts had been computerised and all done by a house accountant. At a sub-committee meeting on February 1, 2010, the acting general manager recommended that a tender be issues for transport and one post be eliminated. Tasks had been re-allocated, unit managers were empowered to deal with issues, a new computer package was in place and human resources absorbed a lot of Ms Brennan's work. The acting general manager dealt with the rest himself. At the conclusion of the meeting his recommendation was endorsed. Ms Brennan returned to work after maternity leave on February 1, 2010, and at a meeting the following day the acting general manager advised her she was being made redundant and she wasn't asked to work her notice. The acting general manager issued a letter to her on the same day, advising her that her post had been abolished and he asked her to contact him at her convenience to make final arrangements regarding her redundancy and any outstanding payments. The tribunal heard that Ms Brennan appealed the decision in a letter to the chairman of the board of directors and he replied on February 8 upholding the decision and outlining the reasons for the post being abolished. Ms Brennan then wrote to the HSE and the Minister of State. Various meetings and correspondence continued with the HSE and they expressed their disappointment at the decision to dismiss the assistant general manager and sought reassurance of safe structure and governance. The acting manager said Ms Brennan received her statutory payment in June 2010. Under cross examination, the acting manager said he assessed the organisation and did not decide a redundancy was required straight away and said he may have decided sometime in early 2010 what was working and what wasn't. He said he did not prepare a written report but had ongoing discussions with the board sub-group. He said the only person considered for redundancy was Ms Brennan. It was his recommendation and the board approved it. Her name was not divulged at the board meeting for fear of leaks of information. The tribunal heard that a new CEO was not appointed but a manager had been put in place. An independent accountant gave evidence of income and expenditure for St Hilda's and said funding was received in block and there was no separate funding for Ms Brennan. The new manager said there was no position in the current structure for Ms Brennan's reinstatement. The board of directors has considered it but it was not possible as any money has been reallocated to front line services and the post no longer existed. Ms Brennan said while on her maternity leave she had phoned the acting manager in December, advising of her return to work from her maternity leave on January 19. He advised her to wait until February as he had budgets to work on. She said the meeting took place on February 2 in his office and there was no small talk. He told her there had been a lot of changes, her post was surplus to requirements and there was no need for her to work her notice. She said the meeting was brief, she got upset and went to pack up her things. She said to her knowledge there had been no other redundancies in approximately 62 similar organisations with 15,000 staff. Ms Brennan said she had first met the acting general manager in September 2009 when they had discussed ongoing projects and she had been given no indication her post was in jeopardy. The tribunal heard from an acting general manager in the HSE who said the appointment of an assistant general manager had come about due to a situation that occurred when the general manager was on holidays and there was great difficulty in identifying someone to provide assistance in a crisis. She said funding was provided for safe governance and Ms Brennan's appointment followed. She added that she was unsure who had first told her of the redundancy but she sought legal advice at the time because of her concerns over liability. It was confirmed to the HSE that they were indemnified as per the Service Level Agreement. Under cross examination she said the HSE could not interfere with redundancies. She said she was surprised Ms Brennan was let go. The tribunal found that, due to proposed cutbacks in St Hilda's grant allocation, there had been transport and wage reductions and one redundancy and was satisfied that a genuine redundancy situation arose. The tribunal found that the acting CEO, in proposing to make Ms Brennan redundant, was not conflicted in any way and was entitled to act as he did within his terms of reference with St Hilda's. However, it found that Ms Brennan was clearly and deliberately denied any opportunity by St Hilda's to engage in any aspect of the process and was prevented from contributing in any way. The tribunal found that Ms Brennan was unfairly selected for redundancy and was unfairly dismissed. The tribunal noted that the only remedy sought by Ms Brennan was her reinstatement to the position of assistant general manager but it was satisfied that the funds were no longer there for the position. The tribunal noted that St Hilda's was satisfied to have applied safe governance to its services through a re-organisation that excludes the position of an assistant general manager and deemed that reinstatement was not applicable or appropriate. As a result it awarded Ms Brennan €116,616 in damages, having allowed for the payment of a sum of €3,384 already made. The tribunal also found that Ms Brennan was paid notice at least equivalent to her statutory entitlement and dismissed the claim under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973 to 2005.