A lingerie saleswoman who said she was forced to quit her job of nearly 20 years over the health impact of workplace stress due to a “toxic” work environment at a Dublin department store has won €15,800 for constructive dismissal.
Karrin Breslin was awarded the sum on foot of a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against Chantelle Lingerie Ltd, the operator of a concession in the lingerie department of the unidentified store.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) awarded Ms Breslin her full losses after ruling that the international lingerie brand repudiated her contract of employment by failing to address grievances about understaffing and rostering while her health deteriorated over the course of two years.
It was submitted on behalf of Ms Breslin – an employee of the brand since 2004 – that when the department store reopened in May 2021 following the Covid-19 lockdown, her section was down to 12 staff with just two full-time, compared with 10 full-timers out of 17 before the pandemic.
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The tribunal heard Ms Breslin had moved from north Co Dublin to Co Wexford during the pandemic closure. She asked at that stage to be given a set working day of 9am to 5.30pm, she said. Her employer’s response was that “this was not a request that could be granted given the opening hours of the shop and the need for a fair departmental roster”, the tribunal was told.
The tribunal was told that the department store, rather than the lingerie brand, was responsible for setting the roster governing Ms Breslin’s working hours.
“I feel my mental and physical health has deteriorated ... I don’t have a good work/life balance and it’s going to get worse due to the late closing times coming back again,” she wrote.
Ms Breslin’s case was that her job was made “overwhelming and physically hard” because of these issues and that she began to experience anxiety, low mood, high blood pressure and gastrointestinal problems “as a result of work-related stress”.
Following a medical absence in June 2022, Ms Breslin again wrote to her employer and set out that because the department was so “understaffed” that sales were being lost because customers were walking out without being served.
Her employer’s position was this was “a commercial point and not a personal grievance”.
Ms Breslin had seven periods of certified medical leave between January 2022 and the summer of 2023, the tribunal heard.
In an exchange of emails with her employer during her fifth period of medical leave in June 2023, Ms Breslin said she believed her illness was “work related”.
“There are major obstacles stopping me from doing a good job and this has been going on for years. It’s got far worse in the last four months and definitely having a negative impact on my working life due to a stressful and sometimes toxic work environment,” she wrote.
In responding correspondence, she was told: “I am hoping you can get to the bottom of your sickness so you feel better,” the WRC heard.
The tribunal heard that Ms Breslin worked her last shift on June 25th, 2023 and ultimately did not return to work before she tendered her resignation on October 31st that year.
Chantelle’s managing director, who gave evidence, said she had assumed Ms Breslin would return to her job when she got better and that her resignation “was pleasant and made no mention of issues or other employees’ behaviour”.
When it was put to her in cross-examination that Ms Breslin had told her she was “burned out”, the managing director said she “understood there was an issue” of work-related stress but that she “did not relate this” to Ms Breslin’s resignation.
Asked what she had done to respond to the staffing issues raised by Ms Breslin, the managing director said these were “a matter for the shop”.
In her decision, adjudicator Patricia Owens wrote Ms Breslin had been raising “serious concerns for her physical and mental health” starting in October 2021.
While the managing director made efforts to resolve “minor issues” for Ms Breslin around medical certs and annual leave, “more complex matters” around roster problems and staff shortages “were never addressed”, Ms Owens wrote.
“I consider that the respondent failed in its duty of care to the complainant to protect her health, safety and wellbeing while at work,” Ms Owens wrote. She considered the firm’s failure to respond adequately to amount to “repudiation of contract”, upholding Ms Breslin’s unfair dismissal claim.
Ms Owens awarded the claimant €15,800, her full losses for five months’ unemployment.
A further complaint of disability discrimination under the Employment Equality Act was ruled out of time by the commission.
Ms Breslin was represented by Aisling Irish of Parker Law Solicitors in the case, while human resources consultancy Tom Smyth and Associates appeared for the employer.
