{"id":471834,"date":"2026-05-28T20:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/471834\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T20:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T20:07:08","slug":"salesman-who-earns-e160000-says-no-fault-sacking-made-him-damaged-goods-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/471834\/","title":{"rendered":"Salesman who earns \u20ac160,000 says \u2018no-fault\u2019 sacking made him \u2018damaged goods\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A salesman has said he was \u201cdamaged goods\u201d in the medical devices industry since his ex-employer sacked him in a \u201cno-fault\u201d dismissal it now admitted was unfair, the Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC) heard.<\/p>\n

Kevin Joyce, who earned more than \u20ac160,000 as the territory manager for Ireland in urology and ear, nose and throat products at Ambu, has been unemployed since what he called his \u201cunceremonious dismissal\u201d last July. <\/p>\n

He told the WRC his ex-employer set an industry \u201crumour mill\u201d turning against him with an email to staff announcing it had decided to \u201cpart ways\u201d with him. <\/p>\n

He now intends to sue for defamation, the WRC heard. <\/p>\n

Joyce\u2019s lawyers told the tribunal at a hearing on Wednesday he had complained to the firm\u2019s managing director overseeing Britain and Ireland, Sjur N\u00f8land, about what he saw as a \u201cdisparity\u201d in the disbursement of performance-related pay to sales staff. <\/p>\n

There was a lump sum of \u20ac18,000 at issue, the tribunal was told. <\/p>\n

After repeated attempts to address this with N\u00f8land, he resorted to filing a formal workplace grievance, and an external investigator concluded that the issue he had raised \u201cneeded addressing\u201d, Mr Joyce said. <\/p>\n

Rosemary Mallon, for the company, objected to Joyce giving evidence on the exact circumstances of his dismissal, arguing that since Ambu had conceded unfair dismissal, the hearing ought to be confined to the question of losses. <\/p>\n

There was a strong legal dispute about this, with counsel for the complainant, David Byrnes, arguing the adjudicator was bound to consider the employer\u2019s conduct in effecting the dismissal. <\/p>\n

He said Ambu\u2019s response to the grievance outcome had been to call his client to a videoconference meeting with N\u00f8land, to be told by a human resources officer that the managing director \u201cisn\u2019t going anywhere\u201d. <\/p>\n

The tribunal was told the staff email read: \u201cDear all, today we have decided to part ways with Kevin Joyce with immediate effect.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThat email had huge ramifications for me down the line. The rumour mill that went out internally \u2013 as we know, the medical device industry is a small industry in Ireland and the UK. Everyone knows everyone, and word got out very quickly,\u201d Joyce said. <\/p>\n

There were rumours that he had \u201cdone something gravely wrong\u201d amounting to \u201cserious misconduct\u201d, Joyce said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was completely damaged goods, and not an attractive employee for anyone to deal with,\u201d he added. \u201cI was doing my own credibility, my own reputation, my own character, damage by putting my CV out there and having these conversations,\u201d Joyce said. <\/p>\n

Under cross-examination, Joyce set out that in the 10 months since his dismissal, he had documented 63 instances where he had inquired about new work, including 23 formal job applications. <\/p>\n

Mallon had said when Joyce was giving his chief evidence: \u201cI confirm, for the avoidance of all doubt, there was no fault on the part of Mr Joyce.\u201d <\/p>\n

Adjudicator \u00dana Glazier-Farmer has said she will write to the parties with her decision in due course. <\/p>\n

Byrnes was instructed by Nikita Kelly of Lavelle Partners LLP; Mallon by Mason, Hayes and Curran LLP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A salesman has said he was \u201cdamaged goods\u201d in the medical devices industry since his ex-employer sacked him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,1962,6465],"class_list":["post-471834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-work","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471834","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=471834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}