Sportswear salesman awarded €34,000

A FORMER soccer sales representative for O’Neills Sportswear, who was fired because he did not reach sales targets, has been awarded €34,000 in compensation by the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

The tribunal found that Christopher Varian of Mervue Lawn, Ballyvolane, Co Cork was unfairly dismissed by O’Neills International Sports Company Ltd on October 4th 2007.The company dismissed Mr Varian for poor work performance, but the tribunal found that fair procedure was not followed in his dismissal.

Mr Varian began working out of the company’s Cork office in July 2006. The minimum annual sales target in the commission-driven post was €300,000.

In its determination, the tribunal found that the firm issued no written warnings about Mr Varian’s performance.

While Mr Varian’s sales figures were not great up to Christmas 2006, he was kept on because this was a “bedding-in period”, his former sales manager told the tribunal. He was told in May that he would need to improve and when this did not happen, he was dismissed in October 2007.