A May 2026 WRC ruling awarding €40,000 for unfair dismissal of a long-serving hospitality worker shows the real cost of skipping fair procedures. Here is what Irish employers should take from the case Read more
A WRC adjudicator has just ordered an Irish hospitality employer to pay €40,000 in compensation for unfair dismissal of a head chef who had spent 17 years with the business. The ruling, detailed by TheJournal.ie this week, highlights exactly how costly a poorly managed dismissal becomes when an employer cannot demonstrate a fair process. For any business owner reading this and thinking “that would never happen to us,” consider how confident you are in your own dismissal documentation right now.
Under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977-2015, an employer who dismisses a qualifying employee must prove the dismissal was both substantively and procedurally fair. In this case, the WRC found the employer failed to meet that burden, awarding €40,000 to a long-serving worker. The award reflects both the seriousness of the procedural shortcomings and the employee’s length of service.
The case involved a head chef employed by a well-known Irish food and hospitality business. The employee had been with the company for 17 years, working in its central kitchen operation. Following a workplace dispute, the employer moved to dismiss.
The WRC adjudicator ruled that the dismissal was unfair. The details matter less than the pattern: a long-serving employee, a breakdown in the working relationship, and an employer who could not demonstrate that a fair and documented process had been followed before terminating employment.
€40,000 was the price. For context, the maximum compensation the WRC can award for unfair dismissal is two years’ gross remuneration. This was a substantial award that reflects how seriously the adjudicator viewed the procedural failures.
Length of service is one of the factors that WRC adjudicators weigh when calculating compensation. An employee with less than two years’ service who is unfairly dismissed will typically receive a lower award than someone who gave nearly two decades to a business.
This is something our team at Purpletree sees employers underestimate regularly. Long-serving staff often have no formal performance issues on file. When a dispute escalates and the employer decides to terminate, there is no documented trail of warnings, meetings, or improvement plans. The employer is then left trying to justify a dismissal to the WRC with nothing on paper.
The longer an employee has been with you, the stronger your documentation needs to be if things go wrong. That is the operational reality, and it is where many employers fall short.
Irish employment law places the burden of proof on the employer in unfair dismissal claims. Once an employee with 12 months’ continuous service establishes they were dismissed, the employer must show it was fair. “Fair” has two distinct parts: the reason for dismissal must be valid (substantive fairness), and the process followed must be reasonable (procedural fairness).
Employers lose WRC cases on procedural grounds far more often than on substantive ones. A situation we see frequently at Purpletree’s investigation and disciplinary service involves employers who had a legitimate reason to dismiss but skipped steps in the process. They held no formal investigation meeting. They did not put allegations in writing. They gave no opportunity for the employee to respond or bring a representative. They issued no warnings before going straight to termination.
Each of these gaps is enough for an adjudicator to find the dismissal procedurally unfair, regardless of how serious the underlying issue was. The WRC’s Industrial Relations Act 1990 Code of Practice on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures (SI 146/2000) sets out what adjudicators expect, and failing to follow it is one of the fastest routes to an award against your business.
The hospitality sector faces a particular challenge here. Kitchens are high-pressure environments. Tempers run hot. Decisions about staff are sometimes made in the heat of the moment by managers who have never been trained in employment law. A chef walks out after a row, and the employer treats it as resignation. A head chef clashes with management, and the business terminates without following its own procedures.
In our experience advising hospitality employers across Ireland, the sector has some of the highest rates of informal employment practices. Many restaurants, hotels, and food businesses still operate without written disciplinary procedures, without trained managers, and without HR support. When a dispute reaches the WRC, these employers are exposed.
The Irish hospitality sector also has high staff turnover, which can create a false sense of security. Employers assume that most staff will simply leave rather than take a claim. That assumption is wrong. The WRC received over 8,000 complaints in recent years, and unfair dismissal consistently ranks among the most common claim types.
The complexity of a fair dismissal process catches employers off guard in two places.
First, there is the multi-step coordination involved. A fair process requires an investigation (separate from the decision-maker), a disciplinary hearing with notice and the right to representation, a decision communicated in writing with reasons, and an appeal heard by someone who was not involved in the original decision. Each step has its own requirements around timing, documentation, and impartiality. Getting one step wrong can undermine the entire process.
Second, there is the question of proportionality. The WRC expects the sanction to match the conduct. Dismissal should be the last resort, not the first response. If an employer jumps to termination without exploring alternatives (such as a final written warning, redeployment, or mediation), the adjudicator will question whether the decision was proportionate. This is where employers who “just want the problem gone” get caught out.
When we guide clients through disciplinary and grievance processes, these are exactly the areas where our involvement prevents costly errors. The process has to be right from the very first meeting, not patched together after the fact.
A €40,000 WRC award is painful for any business, but the true cost of an unfair dismissal finding runs deeper. There are the legal and representation costs of defending the claim. There is the management time consumed by preparing submissions and attending hearings. There is the impact on remaining staff morale when they see how the business handled the situation.
For hospitality businesses operating on tight margins, an unexpected five-figure payout can be devastating. It is also entirely avoidable. The difference between a €40,000 award and a successfully defended claim almost always comes down to whether a documented, fair procedure was followed before the dismissal took place.
Our team handles employment advice and WRC preparation for employers across Ireland daily. When a client calls us about a difficult employee situation, we do not hand them a template and wish them luck. We manage the process from start to finish.
That means structuring the investigation properly, ensuring the right people are in the right roles, drafting the correspondence, advising on proportionality, and preparing the employer’s position in case the matter ends up before the WRC. For employers in hospitality, construction, retail, and other sectors where HR resources are stretched, this is the difference between a defensible decision and a €40,000 liability.
If you do not have a documented disciplinary procedure in place, or if you are unsure whether your current process would hold up at the WRC, our free WRC compliance checklist is a good starting point. For hands-on support with an active situation, contact our team directly.
The maximum compensation for an unfair dismissal claim under the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977-2015 is two years’ gross remuneration. For dismissals connected to a protected disclosure, the cap rises to five years’ gross pay. The actual amount awarded depends on factors including the employee’s length of service, the severity of the procedural failings, the employee’s efforts to find alternative work, and any contribution by the employee to the dismissal. Awards of €20,000 to €40,000 are common in cases involving long-serving employees and clear procedural gaps.
Generally, an employee must have at least 12 months’ continuous service with the same employer to bring an unfair dismissal claim under the Acts. There are exceptions: claims related to pregnancy, trade union membership, or protected disclosures do not require 12 months’ service. Employees with less than 12 months’ service may also have options under different legislation, which is why getting specialist employment advice early matters.
A procedurally fair dismissal typically involves a thorough investigation, a formal disciplinary hearing with adequate notice, the employee’s right to be accompanied by a colleague or trade union representative, a written outcome with reasons, and the right to appeal to a different decision-maker. The Workplace Relations Commission expects employers to follow their own procedures and to align with the statutory Code of Practice on Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures.
Yes, poor performance can be a valid reason for dismissal, but the employer must demonstrate that the employee was made aware of the performance concerns, given a reasonable opportunity to improve, supported with any necessary training or resources, and warned that continued underperformance could lead to dismissal. Jumping straight to termination without these steps will almost certainly result in an unfair dismissal finding at the WRC.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Employment law is complex and fact-specific. For advice on your specific situation, contact the Purpletree HR team directly.
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