The tribunal was told a company audit of Mr Praju\u2019s site uncovered \u201c33 non-conformances in the deli area\u201d in July 2024. <\/p>\n
A company disciplinary probe followed and concluded he had \u201cknowingly traded in unsafe food\u201d<\/p>\n
A regional manager who decided to suspend Mr Praju said in evidence to the WRC that there was \u201ca real danger to public health\u201d. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1754647931518-c07d65db-55b5-463e-ae51-976300c5837e.jpeg\"\/)
David McRedmond: \u2018O\u2019Connell Street needs high density housing\u2019 <\/p>\n
The tribunal noted the company\u2019s food safety manager had testified to \u201ca long list of issues which gave serious concern\u201d and that sections of the site \u201chad to close due to unsafe and unclean areas\u201d. <\/p>\n
Another regional manager, who was responsible for a disciplinary process, told the tribunal Mr Praju had failed to maintain standards to the extent that it was \u201cgross negligence\u201d and \u201cgross misconduct\u201d. <\/p>\n
Mr Praju\u2019s case was that he was subject to \u201chostility\u201d after a new regional manager took over in April 2024. <\/p>\n
His barrister, Heather McKenna Furlong, submitted that Mr Praju had been left with \u201cdifficulties\u201d fulfilling his duties because of shortcomings in staffing and resourcing. <\/p>\n
The complainant had been required to dismiss his assistant manager in June 2024 on the basis of gross misconduct, and the position was never refilled. <\/p>\n
The site\u2019s food manager was also off on annual leave on the day of the audit, it was further submitted. <\/p>\n
Counsel submitted that her client spent the whole weekend of 12 July working on the site to attempt to rectify the matters raised. <\/p>\n
Mr Praju was ultimately given a final written warning, accompanied by disciplinary sanctions requiring him to take a demotion from site manager to store manager, and to relocate to another workplace, the tribunal heard. <\/p>\n
Mr Praju\u2019s legal team argued that the demotion required him to go to work in a different county, and was \u201centirely untenable\u201d. <\/p>\n
Their client\u2019s past track record in audits was \u201cnot acknowledged\u201d in the disciplinary outcome letter and the firm \u201cdid not engage\u201d with Mr Praju\u2019s argument that matters beyond his control contributed to the audit failings, it was submitted. <\/p>\n
It was in those circumstances that Mr Praju ceased engaging with his employer, it was submitted. The company ultimately terminated Mr Praju\u2019s job at the end of October 2024. <\/p>\n
Adjudicator Gaye Cunningham wrote in her decision that the evidence produced in the audit was \u201cdamning in a serious way\u201d and that Mr Praju \u201ccontributed somewhat\u201d to his difficulties \u201cby blaming others and being unable to accept responsibility for the shortcomings\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, she noted a conflict in evidence about who was responsible for filling staffing gaps and ruled that Mr Praju \u201cwas not fully to blame\u201d for the lack of an assistant manager to support him.<\/p>\n
The demotion and the move to a site over 66 kilometres away was \u201charsh\u201d in view of Mr Praju\u2019s long service. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome other penalty, such as a written warning and intensive retraining, would have been more appropriate,\u201d Ms Cunningham wrote. <\/p>\n
Ruling that the complainant was unfairly dismissed, she awarded him \u20ac18,750 for loss of earnings and benefits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Applegreen has been ordered to pay \u20ac18,750 to a veteran manager it decided had \u201cknowingly traded in unsafe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,6465],"class_list":["post-492635","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\/492635","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=492635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}