A driver working for a Guinness keg delivery subcontractor who was sacked despite denying an allegation that he offered a barman “kegs for cash” has won nearly €7,000.
Joseph Foster secured the awards against STL Logistics Ltd on foot of complaints under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973.
STL Logistics sacked Mr Foster on the grounds of gross misconduct in November 2023. The company delivers kegs to pubs from the Guinness brewery at St James’s Gate in Dublin as a subcontractor to global drinks giant Diageo.
The company’s position was that Mr Foster came under investigation after an allegation by a publican, who claimed he was left short by three kegs in a delivery.
Of 14 kegs Mr Foster was meant to deliver, one was noted to be leaking, but the publican stated that he only got 10 kegs.
“A barman working for [the pub] reported having been offered kegs for cash by the complainant,” it was submitted on behalf of STL Logistics.
An investigation involving a review of delivery records, CCTV footage, and witness statements, followed by a disciplinary hearing – after which Mr Foster was dismissed on a finding of gross misconduct for “misappropriation of client stock”, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) heard.
The decision to dismiss was upheld on appeal.
Mr Foster denied any wrongdoing in his evidence and said that one of the alleged “missing kegs” was returned to the yard because it was accidentally left on the truck.
When CCTV footage being relied on by the company was screened at a hearing, adjudication officer David James Murphy noted that it was “a phone recording of a monitor replay” of Mr Foster offloading kegs at the pub.
The company’s site manager reviewed the footage under oath and counted out ten kegs being loaded into the pub premises, Mr Murphy noted.
Addressing the same footage in his evidence, Mr Foster told the WRC he believed the CCTV footage had been “doctored” and said there were times when the footage “skipped”.
Mr Foster added that he had “no prior knowledge” of the anonymous complaint against him and that he was denied an opportunity to challenge witness statements.
He further alleged that the publican who made the complaint had an “incentive” to complain because he got free kegs after making it.
In his decision, Mr Murphy wrote that he was not satisfied the respondent had met its obligation to “properly investigate the matter or to provide the complainant a fair opportunity to advance their defence”.
He noted that the “kegs for cash” allegation was revealed during the internal disciplinary hearing – but not the name of the person who made the claim. Nor was there a written account of the allegation provided to the worker, Mr Murphy noted.
Despite that, the company’s site manager, John McNally, had accepted the “kegs for cash” allegation had “formed part of the decision to dismiss”.
Addressing the CCTV footage, Mr Murphy wrote that the footage “contained noticeable gaps and lacked a timestamp”.
He said he was not satisfied the employer “was reasonable to rely on that footage as evidence that only 10 kegs were delivered”.
Mr Murphy added that the company’s general manager Jimmy Lee, who heard Mr Foster’s appeal, “failed to seriously engage with or consider the complainant’s concerns about the footage”.
Mr Murphy found the dismissal unfair.
However, he reduced the award for unfair dismissal on the basis that Mr Foster had stated that he “couldn’t be bothered reading the full letters” sent by his employer during the disciplinary process on the basis that he “was innocent”.
That “was not an appropriate way for [Mr Foster] to engage with his employer over what was an extremely serious matter”, Mr Murphy wrote.
He awarded Mr Foster €4,500 for unfair dismissal and a further €2,324 for four weeks’ notice not paid when the complainant was sacked for gross misconduct – €6,834 in total.
