The protected disclosure led to an investigation into allegations that the complainant had \u201cfacilitated the unauthorised use\u201d of the firm\u2019s labour, plant, equipment and materials for the benefit of his son.<\/p>\n
Murphy was plant operations manager at the Irish arm of the multinational construction group since 1989, with roughly a decade\u2019s service there before that, the tribunal heard. His son was at the company 20 years when he was sacked, the tribunal was told. <\/p>\n
The tribunal rejected Dermot Murphy\u2019s complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 in a decision published today (FRI). <\/p>\n
The construction firm\u2019s security manager, Martin Kerr, told the WRC that data from the company\u2019s vehicle tracking system showed that 62 deliveries were made to Murphy\u2019s son\u2019s house site by a dozen different vehicles and drivers. <\/p>\n
The tracking data, spanning nearly two years from July 2022 to May 2024, also showed that eight pieces of company plant were left at the house site for a total of 273 days, Kerr told the tribunal. <\/p>\n
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Asked to account for this by Kerr at an investigation meeting, the complainant said he knew \u201cidle plant\u201d was in use at his son\u2019s site, but claimed it was \u201cnot unusual for company plant to be used by employees for private use\u201d, Kerr said. <\/p>\n
Murphy did not deny the machinery was put to work on his son\u2019s site without permission, Kerr said. <\/p>\n
When this position was put to the company disciplinary officer Brendan O\u2019Hara, he said that might be so if a worker \u201casked to borrow a vehicle\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey would certainly not have used plant and equipment on the industrial scale seen in this case,\u201d O\u2019Hara said. <\/p>\n
Murphy told the WRC that it was \u201ccommon practice within the company to use company plant and machinery for personal use\u201d. He did so when he built his own house in 1984, he added. <\/p>\n
He said he had \u201cnever personally directed\u201d machinery to his son\u2019s site. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt had happened over a two-year period, so it was not like it was in and out of the yard every day,\u201d he told the WRC. <\/p>\n
Questions were also raised by the company about orders placed on its accounts for the delivery of three loads of stone and \u20ac3,000 worth of scaffolding to the house site, as well as material used in the manufacture of a set of gates in a company workshop. <\/p>\n
Murphy\u2019s position was that he had also ordered stone for the company\u2019s use at a machinery compound and that the company was invoiced for the three loads sent to his son\u2019s site in error. They had been paid for in cash, he said. <\/p>\n
He said he put the scaffolding order through the company system on the understanding his son or the builder on the house site was to pay for them, as his son had told him it was \u201calready cleared\u201d by the relevant manager at their employer. <\/p>\n
Murphy said a purchase order for \u20ac1,500 in steel he was questioned about was not the same material which was used to manufacture gates for his son\u2019s site in a company workshop. <\/p>\n
Murphy said he had also assumed his son had a more senior manager\u2019s permission to have the gates made. <\/p>\n
An \u20ac800 bill to have the gates powder-coated was settled by the employer as a \u201cshort-term solution\u201d because the other company \u201cwould not take cash\u201d, he said. <\/p>\n
It was \u201cnot a huge amount in the grand scheme of things\u201d, the complainant added. <\/p>\n
Adjudication officer Orla Jones wrote in her decision that it was clear from the company\u2019s investigation that the complainant \u201chad assisted and in some cases procured\u201d equipment and materials for his son. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am satisfied that the dismissal was both substantively and procedurally fair,\u201d she wrote, dismissing the case. <\/p>\n
Glenn Cooper of Dundon Callanan LLP appeared for Murphy in the matter, with solicitor Alastair Purdy representing Murphy International. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A manager who was sacked after 45 years at the Murphy construction group when the firm learned its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,6465],"class_list":["post-450896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450896","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=450896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}