{"id":308720,"date":"2026-01-28T22:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T22:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/308720\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T22:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T22:05:09","slug":"barnardos-childrens-charity-accused-of-ploy-to-shut-down-employment-dispute-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/308720\/","title":{"rendered":"Barnardos children\u2019s charity accused of \u2018ploy\u2019 to shut down employment dispute \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children\u2019s charity Barnardos<\/a> has been accused of using a technical legal argument in a \u201cploy\u201d to shut down a long-running employment rights dispute after the claimant was given an adjournment when her father died.<\/p>\n

At the Workplace Relations Commission<\/a> (WRC) on Tuesday, the charity\u2019s lawyers moved an application that a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, brought by former worker Tara Smith, be \u201cdismissed for want of prosecution\u201d without hearing her evidence.<\/p>\n

Ms Smith was let go by the charity in January 2021 on the basis of redundancy \u2013 a termination she has argued was unfair.<\/p>\n

Objecting to the motion, Ms Smith\u2019s representative, industrial relations consultant John Keenan, said his client had already been \u201cclosed down\u201d once before when her complaint was first listed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s quite a disgraceful move by the respondent . . . I think it\u2019s appalling that such an application would be made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Referencing a hearing in 2022, Mr Keenan added: \u201cA pre-emptory decision was issued by the WRC and we had to go to the High Court to have it quashed in order to have these proceedings and for my client to be heard. The fact of it is, my client was not heard.”<\/p>\n

Barrister Emma Davey, appearing for Barnardos and instructed by Beauchamps, objected to the reference to a previous hearing. Mr Keenan said it was \u201ca matter of public record\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe\u2019ve come here looking for fairness and justice; that\u2019s what the legislation and this commission is designed to provide. To point a finger at us and say we\u2019re inactive is without foundation. We had to go to the High Court to talk today.”<\/p>\n

A hearing scheduled for November 14th, 2024, into Ms Smith\u2019s complaints was postponed that morning by the WRC, Ms Davey said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t on consent. It wasn\u2019t even on notice to us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad died the day before,\u201d Ms Smith said.<\/p>\n

Advancing the motion, Ms Davey said Ms Smith had her \u201csincere condolences\u201d but added: \u201cMy issue is, we didn\u2019t have any pre-warning.\u201d <\/p>\n

A year and 12 days later the WRC set a new hearing date, she submitted. She argued the legislation governing the proceedings provided for the dismissal of a complaint if there was a failure to pursue it for 12 calendar months. She noted several relevant witnesses were no longer with the charity. <\/p>\n

Barnardos was \u201cplaced at a considerable disadvantage\u201d in defending the case due to \u201cthe complainant\u2019s delay\u201d, Ms Davey further submitted.<\/p>\n

After recess, Mr Keenan said: \u201cI think it\u2019s quite a disgraceful move by the respondent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Keenan said the complainant had \u201crelied on the advice from the Commission\u201d when the case was put back in November 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was any delay, we say it is nothing to do with us, it is down to the WRC,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He asked that the application for strikeout be withdrawn. Mr Keenan said that a \u201ctechnical legal argument\u201d was being used as \u201ca ploy to shut this case down\u201d.<\/p>\n

The case was adjourned for legal submissions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s charity Barnardos has been accused of using a technical legal argument in a \u201cploy\u201d to shut down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[151209,79,18,19,17,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-308720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-barnardos","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-workplace-relations-commission"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115974997473265407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}