A former editor of the Evening Echo who is taking an action for unfair dismissal against Examiner Publications yesterday admitted that he offered to step down from his £33,000 job as image manager just weeks before he was sacked, an Employment Appeals Tribunal in Cork was told yesterday.
Mr Edwin Lyons, who is seeking reinstatement as image manager, admitted that at a meeting with Examiner management at the end of August 1996 he offered to step down after complaints that he had failed to implement a training programme for his department.
"At that meeting, I was under a lot of pressure. There were a lot of rumours going around the newsroom that my head was on the chopping block," he said.
Mr Lyons (44), who was dismissed on October 18th, 1996, said he had been unable to start training staff on new technology in the imaging department in April 1996 as planned because two temporary staff hired to provide training cover ended up doing daily work for the group.
He rejected suggestions that visits to a race night at a Cork hotel in January 1994 and a lunch at Tralee Races in August 1996 constituted a breach of an undertaking he had given Examiner Publications over a £130,000 gambling debt in 1993.
Mr Lyons also denied he had taken time off, leaving the picture desk without cover, or took holidays without permission.
The Examiner's editor, Mr Brian Looney, denied that a memo of an Examiner management meeting held at the end of August 1996 indicated that the issue of training and holidays was just a ruse and that management had already made up its mind then to dismiss Mr Lyons.
The memo shows that Mr Looney told the meeting: "Problem with the image manager. Put Jack Power (Examiner associate editor) in that position with a view to identifying a manager, possibly third week in September.".