A former arts manager who successfully brought an unfair dismissal claim and secured compensation against her former employer has appealed to the Labour Court to seek reinstatement to her job.
Linda O’Shea Farren, who was summarily dismissed from the Contemporary Music Centre (CMC), was awarded €55,000 by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) after her employer, a publicly-funded organisation for new music, conceded the claim and acknowledged that she “did not contribute” to her dismissal.
The WRC decision, however, could not envisage “harmonious working relations” between the parties and found reinstatement was not appropriate, awarding the €55,000 based on €44,000 salary, loss and prospective loss of income.
Ms O’Shea Farren, a former solicitor and political adviser, representing herself at the Labour Court hearing, acknowledged that reinstatement could apply only in exceptional circumstances. But she said the undisputed facts of the case were “truly exceptional, if not unique” because CMC had dismissed her in September 2022, two days after its own formal investigation exonerated her and found she had “no case to answer”.
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Chair of the Labour Court Louise O’Donnell said the only issue to be addressed was redress, that CMC had accepted wrongful dismissal, lack of procedures and that Ms O’Shea Farren had not contributed to her dismissal.
The claimant told Stephen O’Sullivan, under instruction from Jennifer Murphy of BC Law for CMC, that she still had “trust and confidence” in the board of the arts organisation.
Mr O’Sullivan who said there were concerns about future disharmony, pressed her on whether she stood by her allegation that CMC director Evonne Fergus was “guilty of gross misconduct”, she said she did. She also agreed she stood by her allegation accusing the board of CMC of “gross dereliction of duty”.
The Labour Court heard Ms O’Shea Farren had engaged in further activity since termination, including running in the local elections in 2024 in the Dublin Pembroke area. She also ran for election as chancellor of the National University of Ireland in October 2024 while in the fifth year of her term on the NUI senate. She also ran for election to the Seanad in January 2025. Mr O’Sullivan said: “There is a lot of time and effort when it came to that process.”
He added that the claimant had a history of running for election during her employment and ran in the local elections in 2019 and for the Seanad in 2020 and took one month’s leave for each campaign and gave very short notice to her employer.
Ms O’Shea Farren became emotional as she spoke of the impact on her reputation, and in the nine months after she was dismissed and before the WRC case and her exoneration people would believe there was “no smoke without fire”. She said the arts community was very small and news of her dismissal would have spread very quickly.
She said she had had great difficulty trying to find work and that in the two years from her dismissal in September 2022 had earned only €1,000 gross and since September 2024 had earned €400 with €1,000 due and a €2,000-a-month one-year contract since November 2024.
Getting employment had been very difficult and “until reinstatement there is no justice for me”, she said. Redress did not undo the damage to her reputation.
Employers’ representative on the Labour Court Gavin Marié suggested that Ms O’Shea Farren was saying she was “unemployable but electable” because her employment prospects were virtually nil and there was a contradiction in this. She said she had found it very difficult to get a job but an elector wants to employ someone who speaks for them, without having to consider anything in relation to their employment status.
Chair of the board of CMC Paula McHugh gave evidence that the board did not consider the option of re-engagement or reinstatement. There had been job restructuring and two employees had taken on parts of Ms O’Shea Farren’s roles, she said.
Their focus was on operations and on the speed at which things were deteriorating and the impact on the organisation, she said.
Ms McHugh was concerned there would be future disharmony and difficulties if the claimant was reinstated.
