Bar manager who denied employer made job offer loses unfair dismissal claim

A bar manager who denied his former employer’s claim that he turned down an invitation to come back from lay-off to a €50,000-a-year part-time job has lost his claim for unfair dismissal at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

Lawyers acting for Mukesh Kumar Salyan said they had been given “firm instructions” that there had been no offer and that a phone conversation during which the firm said he rejected it “never took place”.

Their client’s position in his complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against Kivaway Ltd, trading as The Odeon Group, was that he had been “fired without any notice and without being given a reason” after nearly two years on Covid-19 lay-off from March 2020.

The company maintained that Mr Salyan had decided not to come back to work and concentrate on his new takeaway business instead.

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Mr Salyan’s solicitor, Kamal Vaid, told the WRC that his client was “active” as a manager in the group’s Odeon venue on Harcourt Street as well as its South William Street late bar, Dakota when the venues reopened in June 2021.

Mr Salyan said that after his earlier inquiries in December that year went unanswered, he followed up in an email to the managing director of the bar group, Paul Keaveney, on 9th February, 2022 claiming his boss “did not have the courtesy to tell me the reason why you didn’t give me my job back”.

“I need my dues, Paul. You cannot just fire someone without even [giving] them the reason,” the complainant wrote.

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Mr Keaveney’s evidence to the WRC was that the company’s general manager had told him in 2021 that Mr Salyan “would not be returning from lay-off as he had his own business and was doing very well”.

The managing director said he texted Mr Salyan the day he emailed in February 2022 to arrange a meeting on the 15th of that month, during which he told Mr Salyan he did not need a bar manager at the Odeon for its impending reopening – instead offering him a general manager vacancy Dakota venue.

The job would have paid the same as Mr Salyan had been earning before, €50,000, but could be done over a four-day week, effectively a 20 per cent pay boost, Mr Keaveney said – adding that he also offered a “coming back” payment of €5,000.

Mr Keaveney said Mr Salyan turned down the offer when he phoned him about it the following Tuesday, 22nd February.

Mr Salyan said he “would have too much tax to pay” and asked Mr Keaveney “just to pay him some money”, the managing director said in evidence.

“Our client’s firm instructions are that this phone call or conversation [at the meeting] never took place,” read an email from Mr Salyan’s solicitor, Mr Vaid, to the firm in December 2022.

WRC adjudicator Jim Dolan noted that phone records submitted to the WRC showed that Mr Keaveney had phoned Mr Salyan on 22nd February 2022 at 10.54am, with the call lasting 93 seconds.

This had been preceded by a text message the day before from Mr Keaveney which read: “Any thoughts on the job offer – call me if you wish to discuss.”

Mr Vaid, for the complainant, argued there was an onus on the company to provide “full proof” of the phone call.

Peter Ryan of RA Consulting, who appeared for the employer, denied dismissal and said: “Rather than returning to work with the company, [Mr Salyan] chose to focus on the operation of his own business,” Mr Ryan said.

Mr Dolan said that there was “considerable doubt in relation to the actual act of dismissal” in the case, adding: “I do not believe that an actual dismissal took place.”

The adjudicator rejected the complaint as “not well founded”.