A hotel firm which claimed it was entitled to get rid of a senior executive because its biggest hotel in Ireland had been turned into a direct provision centre has been ordered to pay him €125,000 for unfair dismissal.
It is the first six-figure sum awarded by the Workplace Relations Commission in a rights dispute so far in 2025.
Skyline View Ltd, a subsidiary of the UK-based JMK Hospitality Group, was found to have used a redundancy process as a “cloak” for the removal of its former head of operations, Mark Langham, from the company, in breach of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.
The company’s position was that it had reduced “operational needs” in Ireland after renewing a deal with the State worth up to €23 million to rent out its largest hotel, the Holiday Inn at Dublin Airport, to the International Protection Accommodation Services as a direct provision centre for asylum seekers. It also cited financial considerations.
Mr Langham told the tribunal, however, that the real reason for his dismissal was “probably a personality clash” with Sonia Kajani, a daughter of the company’s founder.
Relations became “strained” from Christmas 2022 and into 2023, he told adjudicator John Harraghy, referring to “the tone of emails coming through”.
“How do you think the role could have been saved?” Mr Harraghy asked.
“I don’t think they wanted my role saving. I think they just didn’t want me in the business,” Mr Langham said.
Under examination from his barrister, Rachel McGovern BL, who appeared instructed by Crushell & Co Solicitors, Mr Langham said the group’s Irish operation had €50.5 million in turnover in 2022, with €23 million of that coming from the Dublin Airport Holiday Inn – the “largest amount”, he added.
The Holiday Inn direct provision deal with the State had been agreed through a third-party travel agent which was charging a commission, he said, adding that within a fortnight of starting work for the company, he was told by Ms Kajani’s brother and fellow director, Zain Kajani, to “remove that third party and do a direct deal”.
He said it took “a good five months trying to find a contact in the department” but that the deal, when it was closed off in December that year, “substantially increased the value of each bedroom” at the hotel.
Mr Langham’s evidence was that the company was “doing well” in December 2022. He said it had acquired properties in Dublin and Galway, had started construction on a new project in Cork and was finalising plans for a further project in Belfast.
The company, which was represented by Nicola Murphy of HR consultancy Peninsula Business Services, took the position that Mr Langham was made redundant for “financial and operational considerations” and that the process was conducted fairly.
“At the time, interest rates were rising, inflation was at an all-time high, the costs of the business on a day-to-day basis were absolutely through the roof and the structure of the business was changing as well,” Sonia Kajani told a hearing on Tuesday.
Since Mr Langham’s salary was the highest of any employee in the group, the witness said it “just made more financial sense to make the role redundant”.
In his decision, published on Friday, Mr Harraghy wrote: “I find that redundancy was used as a cloak in the dismissal of the complainant and I find that this complaint is well founded.”
He wrote that there had been “no evidence” to back up the position that the company was in a financial position that would justify the redundancy.
The evidence before him was that the company had turnover of €52 million and Mr Langham’s salary “would have accounted for approximately 0.3 per cent of this”.
He noted that Mr Langham had already suffered a loss of €60,000 as a result of his dismissal and was down €40,411 a year in his new job.
“I believe that total compensation of €125,000 is just and equitable, having regard to all the circumstances of this case,” the adjudicator wrote and awarded the sum as compensation for unfair dismissal.
