John Arkins, a supervisory stagehand from the popular TV show ‘Ripper Street’, has seen his claim of unfair dismissal rejected by the Labour Court against Element Pictures, the production company involved in Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’ and the Oscar-winning film ‘Poor Things’. Louise O’Donnell, the Deputy Chairwoman, determines that the grievances raised by Mr Arkins were baseless since he failed to confirm him being employed by Element Pictures at all, causing his complaint to be dismissed.
The May 2020 ruling of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) was upheld by this decision, despite the specific parties involved not being disclosed. Mr Arkins had asserted that he was in the employment of Element Film Ltd while working on the fourth series of ‘Ripper Street’ and at the time of losing his job in 2016.
Representing Element Pictures, Hugh McDowell declared that Mr Arkins had never been on the payroll of Element Pictures and it was not the producing company for the fourth series of ‘Ripper Street’. Documentation from the Companies Registration Office (CRO), which corroborates this standpoint, also highlights Kilternan Films Production Ltd as the entity responsible for the series.
CRO documents disclose that the series was produced by Element Pictures Productions Limited, which was not the firm subjected to Mr Arkins’s legal action. Mr. McDowell contended that, according to CRO documents, Element Pictures Productions Limited and Element Film Limited are two distinct legal bodies, with some overlapping directorial supervision.
Andrew Lowe, co-director of Element Pictures, countered Mr Arkins’s claim by clarifying that Element Pictures Ltd employs approximately 44 full-time staff across cinema and distribution departments, along with 30 part-time workers. He also acknowledged having professional interactions with Mr Arkins in the past, particularly when Mr Arkins founded the Irish Film Workers Association and was a member of Siptu.
Mr. Arkins, however, maintained that he had been working tirelessly for four years, starting in 2012, on Ripper Street and had been functioning under Element Pictures since 2004 on an annual basis and not intermittently. He contended that upon not being offered a position, he had been unjustly terminated by Element Pictures Ltd.
Speaking for Mr Arkins, Liz Murray expressed that subsequent to his testimony before a committee of the Oireachtas probing into the state and progression of the Irish movie industry, no film production firm was willing to employ him. In retort to that scenario, Mr Lowe expressed indifference, stating that Mr Arkins’ appearance in front of the Oireachtas committee was of no concern to him.