A former chief executive of County Tipperary Chamber of Commerce who was fired after posting a “political” comment on its social media account which also appeared in a local newspaper has been awarded €20,000.
The Workplace Relations Commission ruled that the dismissal of David Shanahan was “substantially and procedurally unfair”, while the sanction was “disproportionate.”
WRC adjudicator Ewa Sobanska said the decision to dismiss Mr Shanahan was “not within the range of reasonable responses of a reasonable employer.”
The Chamber, whose official name is Clonmel Chamber of Commerce, had claimed that the dismissal of Mr Shanahan was fair and proportionate.
In a separate ruling earlier this year, the WRC also ordered the Chamber to pay Mr Shanahan €12,000 in relation to illegal pay deductions.
Mr Shanahan, who joined the Chamber as chief executive in March 2017, was on a salary of €35,000 plus an annual incentive payment scheme at the time of his dismissal in October 2020.
The Chamber claimed its president, Paula Carney-Hoffler, became aware on September 17, 2019 of a post uploaded by Mr Shanahan on the organisation’s LinkedIn account that she considered political in nature and inappropriate.
Mr Shanahan, who was an unsuccessful Fianna Fáil candidate in the local elections in Clonmel in May 2019, told the WRC that he had left politics by that stage and claimed he removed the post after being requested to do so by Ms Carney-Hoffler but there was a delay in taking it down.
Mr Shanahan said he had asked The Nationalist newspaper not to print the first of two press statements he had released but they had published the first one in error on September 20, 2019.
Ms Carney-Hoffler said Mr Shanahan had also ignored her instruction to him on September 22, 2019 to refrain from sending out any communications about the Chamber’s business awards without prior approval.
The WRC heard Mr Shanahan was suspended on full pay on September 25, 2019 in relation to his alleged unprofessional behaviour and what appeared to be discrepancies in his use of the chamber’s credit card.
He was also accused of a breach of trust and insubordination.
The Chamber subsequently partially upheld the allegation in relation to the credit card after finding he had used it on 112 occasions in the first eight months of 2019 for unapproved purchases including dry cleaning, lunches and other items which appeared to be for personal use.
A disciplinary committee concluded in September 2020 that he had stolen small sums of money by using the credit card for cash withdrawals.
However, Mr Shanahan claimed he had repaid any money to a staff member which he assumed had been reconciled with petty cash.
Ms Sobanska expressed concern that the Chamber chose to disregard a statement by another staff member recalling money reimbursed by Mr Shanahan had been returned to petty cash.
Mr Shanahan told the WRC that there was no procedure in place in relation to either the release of press statements or use of credit cards.
He claimed his job required him to have a presence “downtown” and the use of the credit card for dry cleaning and single lunches were business-related expenses.
Mr Shanahan pointed out that there had been no issue in relation to any previous press statements and he did not believe the one in question was political.
He claimed the instructions he received from Ms Carney-Hoffler were unclear.
Mr Shanahan claimed the Chamber had been in deep financial trouble when he joined the organisation but had returned it to profit within two years.
Once he was suspended Mr Shanahan said he had the impression the situation was prejudged and there was an expectation he would resign and the Chamber would appoint “their own person.”
An appeal against the findings of a disciplinary committee was unsuccessful.
Outlining her ruling, Ms Sobanska said there was no dispute that Mr Shanahan had released an e-mail about the Chamber’s business awards after being asked not to.
Ms Sobanska noted it had no press policy prior to September 2019 but that it was not unreasonable for the Chamber to expect social media posts and press releases would be “professional and appropriate.”
Even if the LinkedIn post and press release were considered a genuine misunderstanding or mistake, she said the sending of the e-mail one hour later to Chamber members after being directed not to issue such material required further examination.
Ms Sobanska said Mr Shanahan’s claim that he did not understand Ms Carney-Hoffler’s instruction was “implausible.”
However, she accepted that he might have understood the instruction to relate to media communications only.
She said Mr Shanahan did not understand the gravity of the situation at the time which might be partly explained by the liberty he had in relation to media communications up to that point.
Ms Sobanska said it was unreasonable for the Chamber to rely on such a clause within Mr Shanahan’s employment contract on the use of a credit card, when it had passively agreed over the years for him to be allowed greater flexibility over its use.
She noted no other sanction apart from dismissal was considered at any stage, despite the absence of policies on credit card usage and media communications as well as an allegation being “only partially upheld” and a lack of clarity over what constituted “major” misconduct.
Ms Sobanska said the decision to suspend Mr Shanahan because the Chamber felt he could be “quite opinionated” and could be “a further risk to the business” was not satisfactory.
The WRC adjudicator said she also had serious concerns that the allegations were altered after the disciplinary process had started.
She concluded that the Chamber had not discharged the onus of showing the dismissal of its former chief executive was fair.
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