Stradbally Ladders in County Laois, Ireland, has been ordered to pay €6,000 (£5,278) to a former office worker for making her redundant while on maternity leave last year.
Joanne Kennedy, who had been an administrative assistant at the firm since 2020, took maternity leave in January 2024. She told her employer on 17 June that year that she wished to take parental leave when her maternity leave ended on 22 July 2024.
After Stradbally Ladders’ founder retired in 2021, the new management switched to automated invoicing and a computerised phone system in late 2023, meaning an administrative assistant was not required. On 8 July 2024, she was told she was being made redundant, effective 20 September.
At this point, Kennedy was on long-term sick leave and was unavailable for consultation on her redundancy. The management understood Kennedy’s absence from 12 December 2023 to the start of her maternity leave was due to pregnancy-related illness. They considered it inappropriate to give her redundancy notice at that stage, but believed it appropriate to do so towards the end of her maternity leave the following summer.
Kennedy claimed she was unfairly selected for redundancy, did not get a hearing when appealing, and that the firm had breached the Maternity Protection Act by denying her a return to work upon the expiry of her protective leave.
Workplace Relations Commission adjudication officer Peter O’Brien found a genuine redundancy situation did exist, but the Unfair Dismissals Act required consideration of the reasonableness of the employer’s conduct. He noted that it chose not to make Kennedy redundant before her maternity leave started.
“Admirable as this may be, this did not eliminate the respondent’s legal obligation to allow the complainant return to work after her maternity leave,” he said.
Kennedy was awarded €6,000 in compensation on top of a sum of almost €6,000 redundancy payment, as well as a cheque for the outstanding sum of €1,260 (£1,108) due to not being paid two weeks’ notice upon her termination.
While the notice was paid a fortnight before the tribunal, this was still eight months late. O’Brien said Kennedy had been deprived the opportunity to earn interest on the notice and awarded her a further €38 (£33) on the basis of 3% interest.
Stradbally Ladders was contacted for comment prior to publication.
