12:19 pm, December 6, 2022
An Irish car dealer has won a case of wrongful dismissal after his boss sent a foul-mouthed tirade his way.
Cyril Murray was sacked from his role as a service manager at JJ Fleming & Co in February of last year following a heated row with managing director, Pat Fleming.
During an expletive-laden argument over the completion of warranty paperwork, Fleming told the employee to ‘“f**k off” and ‘bring the f**king van back in the morning’.
He left his position with immediate effect and went on to bring forward a case of wrongful dismissal against the Galway Opel dealership.
The company insisted he had resigned from his position but a ruling published yesterday (Dec 5) has now found in favour of Murray.
Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission heard that on the day of the incident Murray had been having problems logging in to do warranty paperwork.
Giving evidence to the commission, Murray said that Fleming had asked about his progress during his lunch break and ‘seemed unhappy’ about him eating lunch.
Later that afternoon Fleming began shouting at the service manager and ‘asking why there were not more warranties completed’.
When confronted about his tone, Fleming replied that he would ‘do what he f**king wanted as he was the boss’, the hearing heard.
It was at that point he told Murray to ‘f**k off’ and ‘bring the f***ing van back in the morning’, which was taken by Murray ‘to mean that he was dismissed’.
In his evidence, the complainant said that he felt he had been ‘bullied’ by Fleming.
‘You’ve only done f**king four’
Speaking in his defence, Fleming denied bullying and insisted that Murray had resigned.
He admitted to swearing at the complainant and said he had been shocked to find that only four out of 100 warranties had been completed.
His evidence was that after being confronted, Murray ‘came out from behind the desk’ and said that he was ‘out of there’ before walking out of the office.
A co-worker said he heard Fleming shout ‘you’ve only done f**king four’ during the argument.
After hearing all the evidence, adjudicating officer Louise Boyle found in favour of Murray.
She wrote: ‘I find it was reasonable for the complainant to assume that his employment was terminated.
‘The respondent made no effort to contact the complainant following this heated exchange to reconsider his decision and no effort to apply fair procedures to the dismissal.’
He was awarded compensation of €2,700 (£2,300) – the equivalent of three weeks’ wages.
