The Workplace Relations Commission also found that a separate accusation that the worker had falsified annual leave records had rested on the "fading" memory of a nun, while a witness who said she saw the nun sign them was "inexplicably disregarded".
Geraldine Baxter, an employee of the Little Sisters of the Poor since 2006, won the maximum two years' pay in redress under the Unfair Dismissals Act along with eight weeks’ notice pay after a Workplace Relations Commission adjudicator found she had made "no contribution" at all to her sacking in 2023.
At a hearing last October, Tiernan Lowey BL, appearing for Ms Baxter instructed by Áine Curran of O’Mara Geraghty McCourt, said a new director of nursing joined the organisation in January 2022, and sought to change the rules in relation to various types of leave and rostering arrangements.
The changes also addressed work-from-home arrangements - stating that prior agreements would be in place "until further notice", he said.
Mr Lowey said his client had "always" done some of her paperwork from home under an agreement made orally and established as custom and practice. She understood the email to mean the existing relationship would be continued without change, it was submitted.
Mr Lowey also submitted that when Ms Baxter reduced her hours from a five-day week to a four-day week around 2016, she had kept a contractual entitlement to the 20 days’ annual leave that a full-time worker would be entitled to by statute.
However, the order’s national human resources manager in Ireland called Ms Baxter to a meeting in May 2022, having presented her with two allegations: the alleged falsification of timekeeping records, and the alleged falsification of annual leave records, the WRC was told.
At the meeting, Ms Baxter was questioned about working from home and whether she had kept records of her hours. Ms Baxter said she had "always" worked from home to do paperwork in a "calmer environment" - adding that she had always been "completely transparent and accountable" about it.
Questioned further on her annual leave arrangement at the investigation meeting, Ms Baxter accepted there was no written agreement on this entitlement, but stated that it had been the "open and transparent practice" for the previous six years, the WRC was told.
She "strongly rejected the allegations put to her and expressed her concern that the respondent was trying to remove her from her role and replace her with a younger member of staff on a lower salary," Mr Lowey submitted.
A letter of suspension and a disciplinary hearing in June 2022 followed, the tribunal heard.
The tribunal noted that two more allegations against Ms Baxter appeared at this point: an alleged "failure to follow correct procedures when requesting overtime" and a "general allegation of 'breach of trust’," the tribunal noted.
In evidence to the WRC, the national HR manager who carried out the initial investigation conceded under cross-examination that the allegation of falsifying timekeeping records was "incorrect" and that Ms Baxter had not done so, the tribunal noted.
On the allegation that Ms Baxter had falsified her holiday entitlements, the national HR manager also told the WRC that a nun, referred to as Sister A, had told her she "did not recall" allowing Ms Baxter to keep taking 20 days’ leave after reducing her hours.
However, the HR manager also accepted that Sister A’s memory was "declining" when they met ahead of the initial disciplinary meeting with Ms Baxter in May 2022.
Mr Lowey said his client then became unwell due to work-related stress and filed a formal grievance in August 2022 alleging that she was being bullied and harassed by her employer and called for the disciplinary process to be abandoned, the WRC was told.
Roberta Urbon of HR consultancy Peninsula Business Services, appearing for the employer said the disciplinary process was "paused" pending the outcome of the grievance investigation. This was conducted by an employee of Graphite HRM Ltd and rejected in December 2022, as was an appeal to another employee of Graphite in January 2023, the tribunal heard.
There was no further contact from the respondent from January to June 2023, when the firm’s HR director in the UK wrote to state that she had been asked to conduct a disciplinary hearing in connection with the same allegations raised a year earlier, the WRC heard.
When the complainant expressed a view that there had been "numerous procedural flaws" in the disciplinary process, the UK HR director’s response was: "I’m sorry. I will be going ahead with this process today," Mr Lowey submitted.
He said the UK HR director had been "completely unsuited to the task at hand". An outcome letter issued in July 2023 concluded Ms Baxter had breached trust and confidence and immediately terminated her employment.
The appeal - once again to Graphite HRM - was rejected. Mr Lowey said in his submission that the appeal process conducted by Graphite was "a farce" and that the appeal hearing notes showed that the firm "made absolutely no effort to engage in any of the details or the complainant’s grounds of appeal".
Ms Urbon, for the order of nuns, submitted that the respondent "followed the correct procedures" and that the decision to dismiss Ms Baxter for "gross misconduct" was "substantively fair".
In his decision, adjudicator Breiffni O’Neill noted that the UK HR director - who had told him in evidence that she decided to "re-investigate" the allegations when she took over the disciplinary process, only seemed to have upheld one out of the four – the allegation of falsifying annual leave records.
"Incredibly, I noted that the UK HR director made this finding without seeking to interview Sister A, a crucial witness … on the basis that her memory was fading and relied instead on the evidence that Sister A gave [the earlier investigation]," Mr O’Neill said.
He also noted that the UK HR director "inexplicably disregarded" witness statements from the order’s HR administrator, stating that she had seen Sister A signing Ms Baxter’s annual leave slips a number of times.
"The callous nature of the complainant’s treatment and the disregard shown to her, both as a human being and an employee of long service … [is] indicative of the respondent’s treatment of her throughout the entire process and is not the conduct of a reasonable employer," Mr O’Neill wrote.
"This is an extraordinary case, representing one of the most egregious examples of the mistreatment of an employee by an employer that I have encountered in my professional life," he said.
He said he would have preferred to make an order reinstating Ms Baxter to "fully vindicate" her - but that he had to respect her wishes and award compensation instead.
He awarded Ms Baxter the maximum sum provided for under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1077: 104 weeks’ pay, amounting to €65,520.
Mr O’Neill also ordered the Little Sisters of the Poor to pay Ms Baxter a further eight weeks’ notice pay, €5,040, which had been denied to her in the gross misconduct dismissal, bringing the total award package to €70,560.