Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC) by its former manager, Vedrana Miskic.<\/p>\nThe complainant told the WRC she started the job just after a new owner, Giulio Takacs, took over the business in about April 2025. <\/p>\n
She said Takacs had the view that the existing staff weren\u2019t \u201csuitable\u201d. However, she disagreed, arguing the new owner was \u201cmaking life uncomfortable\u201d as they felt they were \u201cbeing monitored\u201d. <\/p>\n
Miskic said that on April 28th that year, three days after she started, a female member of staff had quit, referring to alleged \u201cracist and sexist remarks made by Mr Takacs\u201d and taking issue with a change in payroll dates. <\/p>\n
In addition, Miskic said Takacs made fun of her accent by referring to her as Sof\u00eda Vergara, in reference to the Colombian-born actor. <\/p>\n
Takacs denied making racist remarks or discriminatory comments concerning members of the LGBT community or black people, adjudication officer Catherine Byrne recorded in her decision. <\/p>\n
Further difficulty arose when the worker who had quit at the end of April came to the premises on May 17th, 2025, in an \u201cupset\u201d state, asking about her wages. <\/p>\n
Miskic said Takacs accused her of failing to tell the former employee her wages were not due to be paid until the end of May, on the basis the cafe had switched to a monthly payroll schedule. <\/p>\n
The complainant herself said she was being paid her wages fortnightly at the time and had been unable to explain to the former employee \u201cwhy she wasn\u2019t paid at the same time as everyone else\u201d. <\/p>\n
Takacs said Miskic raised her voice to him on May 17th and told him: \u201cIf you want me to leave, I\u2019ll leave.\u201d She called in sick the following day, he said. <\/p>\n
Takacs said he met Miskic again onMay 21st, 2025, when he said Miskic said she would take a case to the WRC. <\/p>\n
He argued Miskic had resigned verbally on May 17th, but if she had not done that, trust had broken down by then, and he was entitled to dismiss her on the 21st. <\/p>\n
Miskic maintained she had been sacked for opposing discrimination. <\/p>\n
In a decision published today, Byrne wrote: \u201cI found the complainant to be a credible witness, and I regret to say that I found that Mr Takacs was less so.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe complainant worked hard and did her absolute best to manage the owner\u2019s chaotic approach to the business and his cavalier attitude,\u201d Byrne added. <\/p>\n
Byrne wrote that Takacs\u2019s \u201cuse of AI\u201d in the papers he had filed with the WRC \u201cleads me to suspect that the complainant was correct when she said that he manipulated WhatsApp messages and correspondence to delete comments that he didn\u2019t like\u201d.<\/p>\n
She found Miskic was dismissed on May 21st, noting that Takacs had issued a termination letter giving one month\u2019s notice from that date. <\/p>\n
There was no evidence Takacs \u201cmade remarks about not hiring black people\u201d, but he \u201cdid not deny\u201d referring to Miskic as Sof\u00eda Vergara. <\/p>\n
She concluded Takacs\u2019s comments amounted to \u201cbelittling of the complainant\u2019s accent\u201d by comparing her to Vergara. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is my view that the complainant has established that, on the basic facts, her accent was ridiculed and that, on this basis, she was harassed,\u201d Byrne wrote.<\/p>\n
The harassment was in breach of the Employment Equality Act 1998, Ms Byrne found, awarding Miskic four weeks\u2019 wages, \u20ac3,762, in compensation. <\/p>\n
Byrne also awarded a further four weeks\u2019 pay after ruling Aspenvale Ltd had breached the Terms of Employment (Information) Act 1994 by failing to give Miskic a written statement of her job conditions within five days of starting. <\/p>\n
The total sum awarded in the case was \u20ac7,524.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cafe manager whose former employer belittled her accent by referring to her as \u201cSof\u00eda Vergara\u201d has won…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,6465],"class_list":["post-458950","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\/458950","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=458950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}