The Labour Court has ordered the Dublin Business School to pay €104,000 compensation to a lecturer after he was unfairly dismissed for logging into his college email account from Iran.

In February 2023, the Dublin Business School (DBS) sacked Amir Sajad Esmaeily for gross misconduct after it concluded that “unauthorised access to his college emails whilst abroad amounted to a serious breach of college policy”.

DBS stated that Mr Esmaeily accessed his DBS system whilst visiting what they said was a “prohibited” country and this was despite being told not to do so before he left Ireland.

Mr Esmaeily had travelled to attend the funeral of an uncle in Iran.

At the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), Mr Esmaeily said that his dismissal had a devastating effect on him. He said that he really cares about his students and he would never have put the college, his students or his colleagues in harm’s way.

However, at the WRC and now at the Labour Court, Accountancy & Business College (Ireland) Limited t/a Dublin Business School conceded that the dismissal was unfair.

At the WRC, it ordered the DBS to pay €53,000 compensation to Mr Esmaeily and Mr Esmaeily has successfully appealed the quantum of the award to the Labour Court where it has almost doubled the award to €104,000.

At the Labour Court hearing to decide upon quantum only, Mr Esmaeily represented himself and stated that the WRC €53,000 awarded was inadequate and did not reflect the impact and duration of his losses.

Mr Esmaeily told the court when he was employed by the DBS his pay consistently exceeded €91,000 and the €53,000 award represents only a portion of the total income loss sustained.

Mr Esmaeily said that he suffered significant damage to his career and professional reputation when dismissed by the DBS as he had difficulty explaining to prospective employers why his employment had ended.

Mr Esmaeily told the Labour Court that he was out of work for a prolonged period and made extensive efforts to mitigate his loss.

He said that since being dismissed he has made 114 job applications and a just and equitable award should be made in the range of €150,000.

In her findings, deputy Labour Court chairwoman, Katie Connolly said that ultimately, Mr Esmaeily secured two part-time, temporary, lecturing roles, at a lower rate of pay.

One role ceased in 2024 and the roles allowed him to mitigate his loss by €26,000 per annum.

Based on Mr Esmaeily’s DBS €91,133 salary, the maximum compensation award available was €182,266.

Ms Connolly stated that the court heard no evidence from DBS to justify the reasons for Mr Esmaeily’s dismissal, or to support the assertion that Mr Esmaeily contributed to that dismissal.

Ms Connolly confirmed that the dismissal was unfair.

She said that Mr Esmaeily made reasonable efforts to mitigate his loss after his employment ended.

She said that however, the court is not fully satisfied that the steps taken were of a sufficient and adequate nature to mitigate fully against all losses incurred.

Ordering the award be set at €104,000, Ms Connolly said that Mr Esmaeily provided limited evidence of his efforts to mitigate his losses since 2024 and there were several months in which no job applications at all were made.

Reporting by Gordon Deegan