Business

Salon owner should pay €750 to sacked barber accused of making sexist comments

WRC highlighted an absence of fair process in the dismissal

The salon owner claimed the sacked barber “would not sweep up” as it was “a woman’s job”. Photograph: iStock

Stephen Bourke
Wed Aug 9 2023 - 16:45

A salon owner who sacked a barber because – among other matters – he claimed the worker “would not sweep up” as it was “a woman’s job” should pay €750 for unfair dismissal.

The barber admitted to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that he made some of the “sexist comments” referred to by his former employer but that they “were not intended to be taken seriously and were made in jest”.

The employer’s position was that the worker was an “excellent barber” but “became very difficult”. The salon owner accused the complainant of absenteeism, a lack of punctuality, playing “excessively loud music” and making “anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT comments”.

The employer said “informal warnings” were given to the worker before his dismissal in August 2022 but had no effect.

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The barber had only started work at the salon the previous March, and had too little service to come under the jurisdiction of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.

Instead, he challenged his termination under the Industrial Relations Act 1967 and accused his employer of sacking him “without any prior notice” and without following the procedures for dismissal set out in its own company handbook.

In his recommendation on the dispute, WRC adjudicator Pat Brady wrote that even for an employee with less than a year’s service, an employer was required to have “some element of formal engagement” if it moved to dismiss the worker.

“It is clear the respondent was very frustrated by the complainant’s conduct, and he confirmed at the hearing that he had made sexist comments,” Mr Brady wrote.

“Other allegations were made about him making anti-Muslim and anti-LGBT comments. These are very serious allegations, but their gravity does not relieve the respondent of the obligation to put them to the complainant, hear his response in the course of a fair process and then decide on an appropriate sanction if any is merited,” Mr Brady wrote.

Mr Brady wrote that as the salon had failed to do this, he had “no hesitation” in finding the dismissal was unfair.

However, as the barber had moved to a new job within weeks, the lost earnings were “very limited”, Mr Brady wrote, adding that the barber had made a “very substantial contribution” to dismissal.

The adjudicator recommended the employer pay €750 to resolve the dispute.

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