{"id":185566,"date":"2025-12-10T22:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T22:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185566\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T22:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T22:17:07","slug":"veteran-irish-executive-says-finding-out-she-was-being-demoted-in-company-newsletter-was-pretty-stressful-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185566\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Irish executive says finding out she was being demoted in company newsletter was \u2018pretty stressful\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A veteran Irish executive has described finding out from a company newsletter that she was being demoted from her role as managing director of the multinational where she spent 24 years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say, that was pretty stressful,\u201d Caroline O\u2019Connell told the Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC). <\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Connell also asked whether she was expected to \u201csit around for a year on the dole\u201d under a non-compete clause after being unfairly dismissed from her \u20ac275,000-plus-bonus job at an arm of international translation and localisation group Lionbridge.<\/p>\n

Her former employer told the WRC this week that it was conceding the unfair dismissal of Ms O\u2019Connell, its managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).<\/p>\n

Her complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 opened this week to consider redress \u2013 with more than \u20ac500,000 in dispute between her time out of work, an alleged bonus shortfall, and other matters, the tribunal was told. <\/p>\n

Her barrister, Stephen Moran BL, appearing instructed by Kearney Solicitors, said his client was \u201cunceremoniously ousted\u201d in a \u201csham redundancy\u201d in November 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cI believe I was dismissed because I took a grievance about my job being changed in a newsletter to the company,\u201d Ms O\u2019Connell told the tribunal. <\/p>\n

Ms O\u2019Connell is also pursuing her former employer in the High Court<\/a> \u2013 while the Lionbridge Group has sued her in the United States accusing her of breaching a restrictive covenant by going to work for an alleged competitor, Vistatec, the tribunal heard. <\/p>\n

Her evidence was that she had interviewed for three roles and was offered two, turning down a \u20ac60,000-a-year fixed-term position at the Irish Management Institute as a sales director while still interviewing for Vistatec, where she secured a \u201cC-suite\u201d position. <\/p>\n

The tribunal heard Ms O\u2019Connell\u2019s base salary at Vistatec was higher than at Lionbridge, but the potential bonus was smaller. The press was directed not to report her new salary. <\/p>\n

Counsel for the complainant Mark Curran BL, appearing instructed by Mason Hayes and Curran for Lionbridge International ULC, the arm of the group which employed Ms O\u2019Connell, said she signed a restrictive covenant precluding her from working for a competitor. <\/p>\n

He put it to her that Vistatec was a competitor. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was I supposed to do, sit around for a year on the dole?\u201d Ms O\u2019Connell said. <\/p>\n

Mr Curran said that Ms O\u2019Connell had failed to show sufficient evidence of efforts to mitigate her losses by interviewing for three jobs in the number of months she was unemployed. <\/p>\n

Her claim for ongoing losses due to any difference in bonus terms \u201cshouldn\u2019t be included\u201d in the calculation of losses, he argued, while the stock options were beyond the WRC\u2019s jurisdiction and a matter for the High Court. Mr Moran disagreed with these points. <\/p>\n

Mr Moran said Lionbridge was speaking \u201cout of both sides of its mouth\u201d by seeking to restrict Ms O\u2019Connell from taking up work, before it had \u201ccriticised\u201d her efforts to obtain \u201can extremely handsome package\u201d with her new employer. <\/p>\n

Adjudicator Breiffni O\u2019Neill said he will give his decision in writing in the new year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A veteran Irish executive has described finding out from a company newsletter that she was being demoted from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112,1962,6465],"class_list":["post-185566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports","tag-work","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}