Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My problem with the redress available under the Unfair Dismissals Acts is that some employers, especially large ones, can dismiss workers if they see them as troublesome, awkward, annoying or whatever, and they can take a chance because they know the likelihood is that, at a time of full employment, the employee will be re-employed and all the employer will be on the hook for is four weeks' pay. It does not operate in the interests of workers. The employment market at a given time is what determines what happens. If a person is likely to be re-employed and is re-employed, he or she will have mitigated the potential loss of earnings.

There is nothing to compensate the workers. It is traumatic to lose your job in an unfair dismissal. I know because I have taken such cases, which are notoriously difficult to prove. Furthermore, the award made against the employer does not act as a deterrent. Big employers with big pockets can go to the WRC and the likelihood, in a time of high employment, is the person will have been re-employed, bearing in mind the Act came into being at a time of high unemployment. As a result, the employer that has unfairly dismissed the worker will be on the hook for only four weeks' pay, which is just not a deterrent. There have been cases where people have been unfairly dismissed and the employer has more or less openly said it knows it is going to be on the hook for only a couple of weeks' wages and it is almost worth it, but that cannot be the case.

In any review or consideration, the Minister has to look at the deterrent as well as the award. The law has to act as a deterrent to employers that would seek to dismiss a worker unfairly.

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