A cybersecurity worker told his employers he had a “moral and professional obligation” to set out his concerns about an “Israeli company with an Israeli CEO” having access to the firm’s servers in a covertly recorded meeting with executives, a tribunal has heard.

Unknown to his bosses, the worker, Cian Ó Laoi, recorded a meeting where he given a formal reprimand over remarks made about the Israeli tech sector and the “genocide of the Palestinians”.

He was told he was “wasting a lot of executive time” and engaging in “tinfoil hat stuff”, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has heard.

Ó Laoi is pursuing claims of whistleblower penalisation and constructive dismissal against his former employer, BCC Risk Advisory Ltd, trading as Edgescan, where he worked as a software engineer on its DevOps team.

The company disputes the claims.

The complainant told the WRC he became concerned about the level of access that had been granted to a third-party vendor called DoIT, which was reselling a cloud hosting package.

DoIT’s access was revoked and changes were made in July 2024 after Ó Laoi wrote to Edgescan’s chief executive.

Quoting from the email from Ó Laoi to Edgescan chief executive Eoin Keary on July 2nd, 2024, Mary-Paula Guinness, for the respondent, said: “‘I also need to shout that they [DoIT] are an Israeli company’ – in bold – ‘headquartered in the US and their CEO and two founders are Israeli’ – in bold.”

“I cry to my TV watching them genocide the Palestinians,” Guinness continued.

“Do you think this narrative – the Israelis and genocide – was appropriate?” she asked.

“It was an ethical comment in a private email. It wasn’t directed at any individual,” Ó Laoi said.

Ó Laoi’s evidence was that he was called in by Rahim Jina, Edgescan’s chief operating officer, in July 2024 and told his “rhetoric” about Israel was “unacceptable”.

He said he became concerned he would be “jumped” with disciplinary action and decided to start recording calls with senior management “to protect myself”.

[ Computer engineer claims he was penalised for flagging company’s Israel linksOpens in new window ]

He was reprimanded formally for “discriminatory” comments in relation to Israel at a meeting on September 18th, 2024, which he recorded, the WRC heard.

“As a matter of professionalism, did you tell them you were recording?” Guinness asked.

“No. I recorded it to have a record of the meeting where no minutes were being provided,” the complainant said.

Told he was being formally reprimanded, Ó Laoi asked: “Will I be offered an opportunity to defend myself?”

“You can appeal if you want,” Jina said.

Jina also referred to comments allegedly made during meetings but said the firm would “pin” the warning to two comments in particular emails, the transcript noted.

“If I mentioned Israel in any way, it would have been in relation to the supply-chain risk of Unit 8200,” Ó Laoi said of the meetings, referring to an Israeli military intelligence agency.

Asked by Guinness whether he had “any information” to suggest any staff of DoIT “has a direct connection to Unit 8200”, Ó Laoi said: “No, it’s a risk.”

He said it was “well known in the tech sector” there was a “revolving-door relationship” between the Israeli tech industry and military intelligence.

During the meeting, Ó Laoi said: “I have a right to freedom of expression. I have a right to a conscience,” the tribunal heard.

“This is silly stuff here,” Jina was quoted as saying in reply, and went on to say he had “a right to call out inappropriate behaviour”.

“You claim it was inappropriate – I say it was a moral and professional obligation,” Ó Laoi replied.

The case is continuing before adjudicator Penelope McGrath.