Tyre company that argued redundancy not due to fitter must pay €27,000

A company that claimed a tyre fitter it let go after nearly 23 years on the job was not due a redundancy payment because he found new work “almost” immediately has been ordered to pay him €27,000.

John O’Sullivan, who had worked for Tysoucha Ltd, trading as Tyresource, since the year 2000 until he was let go in 2022, secured the order for the payment of statutory redundancy against the firm under the Redundancy Payments Act 1967.

Representatives of the company – and its liquidator – denied Mr O’Sullivan had been made redundant at all and argued it was not liable to pay.

The tribunal heard Mr O’Sullivan had always worked as a mobile tyre fitter doing call-outs in a company van, moving between the four Tyresource branches in Naas and Newbridge in Co Kildare and Harmonstown and Ranelagh in Dublin.

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A company director, Kevin Talbot, told the tribunal in May that he was “trying to keep the business afloat” in 2022 following the economic shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, and that the mobile breakdown service was “unsustainable”.

Mr O’Sullivan was advised the van would be taken off the road “with immediate effect” in September 2022, the tribunal was told.

The complainant’s representative, Billy Barrett of the Financial Services Union, said his client lived in Lucan, Co Dublin, and worked mostly out of the firm’s Newbridge branch.

He said Mr O’Sullivan had to turn down a job on site at the Tyresource branch in Naas because there was no direct public transport route.

Mr O’Sullivan finished up with the firm in September 2022 and found another job “almost immediately”, the tribunal was told.

Mr Talbot and Megan Mundy, a representative of the company’s liquidator Andrew Hendrick of Friel Stafford Insolvency Services, said they did not accept there had been a redundancy situation at the company.

Adjudicating officer Penelope McGrath wrote in her decision: “The employer and liquidator seemed to be of the view that since the complainant was able to pick up immediate employment, he was not made redundant. I find I do not hold a similar view.”

She said the company was clearly “trying to restructure for survival” and its management decided to stop providing the mobile tyre-fitting service performed by Mr O’Sullivan “unbeknownst” to him.

Mr O’Sullivan’s position was that he was left without either a private car or a work vehicle and “was not in a position to travel to and from Naas without considerable cost and expense”, Ms McGrath noted.

“I would accept that the 25-minute drive becomes an hour and a half of a commute where there is no direct public transport route,” Ms McGrath added – finding that the offer of alternative work in Newbridge was “rendered unsuitable” by taking Mr O’Sullivan’s transport off the road.

As Mr O’Sullivan moved on to a new job without working out his notice period he was not entitled to claim for notice pay, the adjudicator added.

Ms McGrath ordered the firm to pay statutory redundancy on the basis of 22 years and nine months’ service with gross weekly pay on termination of €590 – a severance package worth around €27,000.