{"id":548693,"date":"2026-07-14T05:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/548693\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T05:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:47:14","slug":"firing-of-ms-worker-after-wife-secretly-copied-staff-discount-card-ruled-unfair-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/548693\/","title":{"rendered":"Firing of M&S worker after wife secretly copied staff discount card ruled unfair \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Marks and Spencer<\/a> worker whose staff discount credentials were used 73 times in six weeks when his wife secretly copied them and shared them with her family and friends has won a challenge to his \u201cdisproportionate\u201d dismissal. <\/p>\n

A Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)<\/a> adjudicator ruled Marks and Spencer was wrong to use the \u201cnuclear option\u201d by sacking sales adviser Mark Brennan from his job of more than a decade. <\/p>\n

A 50 per cent reduced award of \u20ac2,000 was made to Brennan under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, as the complainant \u201ccontributed significantly by his carelessness\u201d, the adjudicator decided. <\/p>\n

Judy McNamara of business group Ibec, representing M&S, submitted that internal auditors flagged \u201cserious anomalies\u201d with the use of Brennan\u2019s discount and notified local management. <\/p>\n

In the six weeks from October 31st to December 17th, 2024, the discount credentials were used 73 times, sometimes simultaneously at multiple geographical locations, McNamara submitted. <\/p>\n

Only one transaction in that time was linked to Brennan\u2019s own payment card, it was further submitted. <\/p>\n

A company investigation began on January 8th, 2025, and the internal disciplinary process concluded with Brennan\u2019s dismissal with notice on February 6th, 2025, a sanction confirmed in March, following an internal appeal hearing. <\/p>\n

Brennan\u2019s trade union representative, Mandate divisional organiser Eoin Coates, submitted: \u201cThe discount card had been, unbeknownst to him, copied by his then domestic partner and made available to a wide circle of her family [and] acquaintances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brennan had immediately stopped his partner using the card when he learned what was happening and offered to pay his employer back for the \u20ac464.39 in shopping discounts claimed on his account, Coates added. <\/p>\n

Brennan admitted he was \u201ccareless with the tablet computer\u201d which had allowed his ex-partner access to the discount card credentials, the tribunal noted. <\/p>\n

Coates submitted that this \u201ccarelessness\u201d occurred in the context of a husband-and-wife relationship and could not be considered a disciplinary breach so serious that his client deserved to lose his job. <\/p>\n

The union official added that the WRC \u201cwould be setting a major precedent\u201d if it decided Brennan was to be held responsible for his ex-partner\u2019s actions. <\/p>\n

Adjudicator Michael McEntee noted the evidence of company managers that any abuse of the staff discount was viewed in \u201calmost apocalyptic terms\u201d at M&S. <\/p>\n

McEntee upheld Brennan\u2019s complaint in a decision published on Monday, calling the dismissal an \u201cexcessive penalty\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed excessive to classify as a dismissible offence, the act of allowing through carelessness your domestic partner to seriously misuse, unknown to the [worker], a staff discount scheme,\u201d the adjudicator wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe complainant contributed significantly by his carelessness,\u201d McEntee added however. <\/p>\n

He noted Brennan was quickly back at work for a competitor of M&S, but faced a prospective loss of earnings totalling \u20ac4,600. <\/p>\n

He decided headline redress for the dismissal was \u20ac4,000, but reduced that by 50 per cent to \u20ac2,000 on the basis of Brennan\u2019s contribution to the dismissal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Marks and Spencer worker whose staff discount credentials were used 73 times in six weeks when his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[232518,232519,44586,232520,37784,29972,26444,15046,15896,72,232521,59721,739,9945,8093,426,38979,44650,232522,232523,61435,43320,61,60,12269,463,84506,25307,99,69352,593,100933,43,38256,70637,87280,6270,232524,7868,54238,21019,28150,232525,232526,232527,38267,38,14825,742],"class_list":["post-548693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-232518","tag-232519","tag-44586","tag-223-4","tag-a","tag-announced","tag-at","tag-britain","tag-british","tag-business","tag-clothes","tag-clothing","tag-company","tag-first","tag-five","tag-food","tag-gbp","tag-half","tag-halfyear","tag-hangers","tag-has","tag-huge","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-is","tag-its","tag-kingdom","tag-logo","tag-london","tag-marks","tag-million","tag-ms","tag-news","tag-nov","tag-november","tag-percent","tag-profits","tag-reoprts","tag-results","tag-retailer","tag-rise","tag-seen","tag-seventy","tag-spencer","tag-spencers","tag-store","tag-top-stories","tag-united","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548693","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=548693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}