The Redundancy Road That Leads To The WRC

A recent case in the Irish High Court reaffirmed the position that employees seeking to challenge the legitimacy of a redundancy, need to follow a path to the Workplace Relations Commission.

In a decision of the Court of Appeal last month, the applicant Laurence Kearney was unsuccessful in seeking an injunction to restrain his former employers from dismissing him. Interestingly, his former employer is the Dublin solicitor's firm Byrne Wallace, a firm which has an award-winning Employment Law department.

In this case, Mr Kearney argued that his dismissal from the role he held for 11 years was a sham and a breach of implied contractual terms. The Court of Appeal rejected this. However, the reasoning for this decision is of relevance to employees and employers and worth noting.

Citing Nolan v. EMO Oil Ltd.,  the court of appeal ruled that where no breach of contract is established in a redundancy context an application for an injunction will be unsuccessful. 

Instead, it will be the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) within the statutory framework set down for unfair dismissals in the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977.

The significance of the decision is useful to both employers and employees. It has often been a tactic do derail a dismissal process through the use of an injunction application. While this decision isn't 'new' law, it does reaffirm existing precedent. In doing so, it highlights that injunction applications, exclusively grounded on an allegedly unfair dismissal on the grounds of redundancy is unlikely to succeed.

Author: Rob Michael (McGregor Alexander Consulting)

Contact: [email protected]