A worker who was sacked by Aldi after senior management found out he had been convicted of sexual assault has won â¬5,000 for unfair dismissal.
A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudicator concluded there had been a ârush to dismissalâ after bosses at the organisation were shown a newspaper report on the manâs court case and accused him of failing to disclose his conviction â even though it later emerged he had told his line manager.
The worker, Muhammad Kashif, a cashier at an unidentified supermarket operated by Aldi Stores Limited (Ireland), had been allowed to keep working for eight weeks after receiving a two-month suspended prison sentence at District Court level, having plead guilty to sexual assault.
Mr Kashif, who was employed by the supermarket group between November 2021 and his termination in February 2023, working around 35 hours a week on average â but was also working two or three shifts a month at a fast-food restaurant, the tribunal heard.
The companyâs barrister, Kiwana Ennis BL, appearing instructed by Vincent and Beatty Solicitors, submitted that Mr Kashif had âpleaded guilty to a charge of sexual assault of a female colleague at a separate employmentâ in court on December 20th 2022.
The case was covered in the local press, but the report âonly came to the attention of higher managementâ in February 2023, when Mr Kashif was suspended on full pay, Ms Ennis added.
An area manager, Ms A, said in evidence she had been provided with a copy of the newspaper article on February 10th 2023 by another area manager, Mr B, who asked her to âlook into itâ and âif necessary, start a disciplinary processâ.
During a disciplinary process, it was put to Mr Kashif that he had been âconvicted of a criminal offenceâ and âfailed to disclose this conviction to your line managerâ.
The tribunal heard Mr Kashif confirmed the conviction to company investigators during a disciplinary process â but told them that he had told his line manager about the conviction the day after he was in court. Company meeting minutes noted that the line manager, referred to as Ms Z in the decision, confirmed Mr Kashifâs account, the WRC heard, noting that this was âaccepted by the partiesâ.
Ms Aâs evidence was that the store manager, Ms Z, âhad not disclosedâ Mr Kashifâs conviction.
Aldiâs lawyers submitted that Mr Kashifâs contract of employment provided for summary dismissal for any criminal conviction âother than a minor motoring offenceâ, and he had admitted the conviction.
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Mr Kashifâs barrister, Constantine McMahon, instructed by Michael OâDonnell Solicitors, argued there had to be a connection between misconduct outside the workplace and the needs of an employerâs business to justify the ânuclearâ option of dismissal.
Adjudicator Patsy Doyle wrote that there had been no regard paid to Mr Kashifâs âunblemished recordâ or the eight weeks of âuneventful serviceâ after he disclosed the conviction to his bosses.
She found Aldi was âoverwhelmedâ by seeing the newspaper report at a later stage and âgot lost in its anticipation of harm to the businessâ.
âI have found the rush to dismissal was blighted by the respondentâs fear of anticipatory harm rather than actual harm caused by the print media, where it seems to me that the respondent was not named,â she added.
Ms Doyle concluded that the facts before her were not âconclusive proof of substantial grounds for dismissalâ and found that Aldi had âveered outside the band of reasonableness for a reasonable employerâ.
She upheld Mr Kashifâs complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, but found the complainant bore 50 per cent responsibility for his termination. She awarded him â¬5,000 in compensation, a sum equivalent to two monthsâ gross wages.