A Dublin-based restaurant company’s new leadership pursued a “short-sighted, disingenuous scheme” to remove its founder and his three sons from the business, under the guise of Covid-19, as per the findings of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
The employment tribunal has granted over £61,000 to Stephen Hanley, the third son of Padraic Hanley, the founder of PBR Restaurants Ltd. The award is viewed as compensation for the unjust termination tied to what their legal representatives termed a “well-planned campaign” to remove them from the establishment post the company’s rescue from administration in December 2019 by a fresh investor.
PBR Restaurants Ltd, the umbrella company for Fish Shack diner franchises and a fish processing facility in Northern Ireland, had previously owned Ouzos in Dalkey and Kelly & Coopers in Blackrock. These establishments were split and sold during its rescue from administration.
Stephen Hanley, the company’s former operations manager and the longest-serving Hanley son in the company, secured a more significant award than his two siblings and father put together. The tribunal upheld that his rights under employment time laws had been violated.
Negotiations to settle the legal row between the Hanley clan and the new ownership fell through last spring, progressing his case throughout the previous year. Stephen Hanley informed the WRC last year, post-taking over, the rapport “rapidly worsened” as new investors “reneged” on an alleged agreement. This agreement would have allowed the family to regain their 50% stake in the business.
In March 2020, the family members, along with other staff, were put on furlough and never resumed work, even when other employees were reinstated, according to the tribunal.
Stephen Hanley highlighted that the business forecasts developed for the new administration, which served as a reason for management redundancies, used “sluggish” January and February data to estimate the year’s earnings. The undisclosed manner of compiling these reports reinforced his beliefs.
Original text: /”Stephen Hanley, along with his brothers David and Phillip and their father Pádraig, were among the five jobs identified for redundancy – however, only the four Hanley family members ended up facing redundancy, as stated by company director Ian Higgins at the tribunal discussion. Gavin Comiskey, a solicitor from Peninsula Business Services working for the company, insisted that the redundancy treatment used was “robust”, and the Hanley family members just so happened to be the ones let go, which tends to be a common occurrence in family-owned businesses.
On the other hand, the barrister representing Stephen Hanley, Michael Kinsley BL, argued that the dismissals had “zero link to redundancy”. The adjudicator, Aideen Collard, reached the unignorable conclusion that the new management took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext to initiate a cunning redundancy process that led to the unfair redundancy of Stephen Hanley and the rest of his family. Collard believed that the reports produced by the company were deliberately tipped in favour of a redundancy programme and managerial layoffs, with the second report specifically spotlighting the roles held by the four Hanley family members and another manager for redundancy.
Furthermore, contradictory to the report’s claim that the business was at loss based on the off-season data, it was widely known that the Fish Shack branch of the business was profitable and the successful Dún Laoghaire Pier branch only operated during summer. Collard’s scepticism was bolstered by the covert way the reports were put together and kept a secret.
In the final judgement, Collard ruled that Stephen Hanley’s dismissal was unjust and ordered that he be compensated €46,385 which is equivalent to his annual salary, for loss of earnings. This was to be on top of the €13,800 he received as his statutory redundancy payout at dismissal.”/
Ms Collard also examined alleged infractions of employment legislation under the Organisation of Working Time Act and the 1994 Terms of Employment (Information) Act. Mr Hanley’s testimony of his 12-hour daily work routine for five to six days a week from December 2019 to March 2020 was not contested by the company, although they insisted that he had autonomy over his hours of work.
Both reports used off-peak numbers to suggest upcoming losses, however, it is known that the Fish Shack aspect of the business was thriving, and the prosperous Dún Laoghaire Pier branch only operated in the summer. Mr Hanley insisted that he was subjected to pressure to complete an extensive amount of work before being laid off.
Ms Collard dismissed the new management’s claim that Mr Hanley was responsible for his own work schedule, drawing attention to their emails which required him to adopt new duties in addition to his existing role. Mr Hanley was granted 13 weeks’ pay, amounting to €11,596, due to the breach in working hours.
In addition, four weeks’ pay, or €3,568, was granted for the absence of written employment terms when Mr Hanley’s responsibilities were altered. The total amount awarded in Stephen Hanley’s case was €61,549. His elder brother, David Hanley, won €20,000 for unjust dismissal in March, whilst his younger brother received €30,000.
Their father was awarded €5,500 for an infringement of the 2021 Terms of Employment (Information) Act but was unsuccessful with his dismissal claim, as he had not accrued the necessary 12 months of service to be safeguarded by the Unfair Dismissals Act after surrendering control of the company.
The decision means that the WRC’s total awards to Hanley family members in the dispute exceeds €117,049. Coupled with a €13,269 award for unfair dismissal to the former development chef at the company in September, PBR Restaurants Ltd has been instructed to pay €130,318 to former employees who claimed they were unjustly dismissed following the company buyout.
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