A senior executive in a cyber security awareness training company has been granted a temporary High Court injunction restraining her dismissal.
Mairead Cosgrave, senior vice-president of product and operations at Metacompliance Ireland Ltd, at Port Tunnel Business Park, Dublin, was granted the order by Mr Justice Oisín Quinn following a one-side only represented application by her senior counsel, Clíona Kimber, to the court on Friday.
Ms Cosgrave (49) claims her purported termination by letter on October 14th is in breach of fair procedures and natural and constitutional justice.
This was just a year after she joined the firm. She says she was in charge of 65 people in the products and operations teams, had a background in technology strategy and operations and was on a salary of €180,000 with a €50,000 bonus and share equity entitlements.
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She said in an affidavit seeking the injunction that she was headhunted by Metacompliance to bring “heft” to the company in light of the fact that its existing relationship with a private equity firm which had invested was reaching its five-year term limit. New investors therefore had to be lined up.
She said her six-month performance review was excellent so much so that she was awarded a €25,000 bonus. “I understood there were no issues with me in my employment and I was well regarded within the defendant,” she said.
She said she had a “very strong work ethic and demanded high standards”. This led to her being unhappy with the performance of another member of senior management. She claimed that this colleague had sent her personally abusive emails.
However, she said the difficulties with that colleague, following a meeting and an apology from him, were dealt with and they agreed to move forward.
She said she was astounded when called to a meeting with the firm’s chief executive James McKay on October 9th last to be told her views did not “align” with his and “it’s causing too much noise in the business”.
She said Mr McKay said the firm needed to end the relationship. “The meeting was very short and ended abruptly. I was in complete shock”.
She was then told by the human resources (HR) manager she was being placed on garden leave and efforts were made by the HR manager to sign a settlement agreement “to get this closed off”.
She instructed solicitors who wrote stating the termination was unlawful and requesting it be withdrawn.
She said she was shocked when a firm of solicitors for Metacompliance replied, accusing her of misconduct in four separate areas which she completely denies.
She said subsequent correspondence from the defendant’s solicitors tried to row back from the previous letter but it was also contradictory and did not retract the misconduct allegations. It claimed the termination was by mutual consent.
Ms Cosgrave, who lives in Foxford, Co Mayo, says she will have difficulty obtaining alternative employment particularly at her age, and the damage to her reputation in the tech sector “is immense”.
Mr Justice Quinn noted that part of her case was that normally if there were allegations of misconduct it would require a process to be followed to underpin any dismissal.
He was satisfied to grant the interim order until the case returns next week.
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