{"id":378208,"date":"2026-04-02T11:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/378208\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T11:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:46:08","slug":"former-xerotech-ceo-awarded-e420000-after-being-forced-to-resign-from-galway-company-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/378208\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Xerotech CEO awarded \u20ac420,000 after being \u2018forced to resign\u2019 from Galway company \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The founder of electric-vehicle battery maker Xerotech<\/a> has been awarded more than \u20ac420,000 after he was \u201cshut out\u201d from the business shortly before it collapsed into liquidation last year. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the biggest award so far this year at the Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC) and the third-largest ever made by the tribunal in an unfair dismissals case. <\/p>\n

Barry Flannery<\/a>, the founder and chief executive officer of the company, said he was \u201cforced to resign\u201d from the Co Galway manufacturing company in December 2024. <\/p>\n

He told the WRC at a hearing in February that he was, \u201cwithout warning\u201d, cut off from company systems \u2013 and then shut out from the business when his \u201cphysical access rights\u201d were disabled. <\/p>\n

Flannery said there was a written instruction given on the morning of December 4th that his access to engineering computer systems and a project management platform was to be deactivated. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Liquidators appointed to Galway-based electric vehicle battery group XerotechOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said he had been \u201cstripped of the tools\u201d he needed to do his job while having his communications monitored. <\/p>\n

A further instruction later that day directed that the CEO was to have all access \u201cdisabled entirely\u201d, the tribunal was told. <\/p>\n

Flannery said a further instruction was passed that the contents of his company email account and Microsoft Teams messages were to be made visible \u201cexclusively\u201d to one individual. <\/p>\n

This individual then wrote an email making reference to alleged \u201cgross misconduct\u201d and an investigation, the complainant told the tribunal. <\/p>\n

Flannery said it seemed there were \u201cunknown allegations\u201d being discussed in the company, which were \u201cnever put to him\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said there was a \u201csignificant governance rupture\u201d the following day, December 5th, when he and every other member of the board except its chairman resigned their directorships. <\/p>\n

His solicitors wrote to the company a week later on December 12th, 2024, stating Flannery had been constructively dismissed, which the company\u2019s solicitors denied. <\/p>\n

Adjudication officer Breiffni O\u2019Neill wrote he was satisfied the actions towards Flannery by the company \u201camount to a complete undermining of the employment relationship\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo reasonable employee \u2013 let alone a senior company officer \u2013 could be expected to continue in employment under these circumstances,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n

He upheld Flannery\u2019s complaint of constructive dismissal in breach of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and awarded him \u20ac420,172.<\/p>\n

In setting the award, O\u2019Neill factored in a non-compete clause in Flannery\u2019s contract, which blocked him from taking up a new job in his field until June 12th, 2026. <\/p>\n

The adjudicator added that when Flannery was free to go job-hunting, he considered it \u201cunlikely\u201d he would find another job of the same seniority quickly. <\/p>\n

This was in view of \u201cthe scarcity of CEO-level positions, combined with the circumstances of the dismissal and the disruption to his career trajectory\u201d. <\/p>\n

He wrote that for that reason, he was directing the payment of Flannery\u2019s total loss of earnings out to June 2027 \u2013 the maximum two years\u2019 pay he had the power to award. <\/p>\n

There was \u201cno evidence\u201d set out that Flannery \u201ccontributed in any way to his dismissal\u201d, he added \u2013 making the financial loss \u201centirely\u201d the result of his former company\u2019s actions, O\u2019Neill added. <\/p>\n

Xerotech Ltd entered voluntary liquidation in February 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The founder of electric-vehicle battery maker Xerotech has been awarded more than \u20ac420,000 after he was \u201cshut out\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,1962,6465,169192],"class_list":{"0":"post-378208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-work","12":"tag-workplace-relations-commission","13":"tag-xerotech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378208","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=378208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}