{"id":620167,"date":"2026-08-04T15:58:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/620167\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T15:58:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:58:15","slug":"worker-sacked-over-punch-up-with-driver-who-turned-up-late-with-staff-takeaways-wins-job-back-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/620167\/","title":{"rendered":"Worker sacked over punch-up with driver who turned up late with staff takeaways wins job back \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A worker at a pharma firm sacked after getting into a fist-fight with a takeaway driver in a row over a late order has won his job back, having spent 15 months out of work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The fracas broke out outside the premises of Almac Pharma Services Ltd in Dundalk in March 2025, when staff refused a food delivery because their break was finished, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)<\/a> heard.<\/p>\n

The driver threw the first punch after demanding the sacked worker \u2013 who admitted calling the driver a \u201cc**t\u201d \u2013 repeat the remark, the tribunal was told.<\/p>\n

The employment tribunal has now ordered Almac Pharma Services Ireland<\/a> to re-employ production operator Stephen Loughran within the next fortnight, after ruling his sacking last year was unfair.<\/p>\n

The decision, on foot of a complaint by Loughran under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, was published by the WRC on Tuesday following hearings earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Loughran said a colleague had ordered food for about 10 workers on the Friday evening shift at the company\u2019s facility in Dundalk on March 7th, 2025.<\/p>\n

The order was meant to arrive in time for the workers\u2019 scheduled break \u2013 but as it was 40 minutes late, the workers could not accept the delivery, Loughran said.<\/p>\n

He said the driver got \u201caggressive\u201d when he and his colleagues tried to tell him this.<\/p>\n

Loughran said he then turned to walk away, and called the driver a \u201cc**t\u201d.<\/p>\n

The driver asked him to repeat the remark, and he did so \u2013 upon which the driver punched him, Loughran said.<\/p>\n

He said he then grappled with the driver and punched him back. The WRC noted on review of the CCTV that there was \u201carm-holding, pushing and a couple of punches thrown by the complainant\u201d.<\/p>\n

Loughran then went out to the driver\u2019s car and asked him to wait for garda\u00ed to attend, but the man \u201cdrove off regardless\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

The complainant, who represented himself at a hearing in June, said he was still unemployed 15 months after being sacked on the stated basis of gross misconduct on April 7th, 2025.<\/p>\n

Michelle McGinley of the Employers\u2019 Federation of Northern Ireland, appearing for the respondent, argued Loughran \u201cinserted himself\u201d into the situation and escalated matters by using offensive language towards the driver.<\/p>\n

She argued Loughran \u201cresponded with a number of punches while the driver was retreating and attempting to protect himself\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis went well beyond self-defence,\u201d McGinley argued.<\/p>\n

This was the view of the company disciplinary panel when it decided Loughran had committed gross misconduct warranting summary dismissal, the tribunal heard.<\/p>\n

In his decision, adjudicator Breiffni O\u2019Neill disagreed and upheld Loughran\u2019s complaint, ruling the dismissal unfair on both procedural and substantive grounds.<\/p>\n

He wrote that having watched CCTV footage of the incident, his view was that the disciplinary panel was wrong to suggest Loughran \u201ccould have walked away\u201d when the driver \u201cbriefly backed away\u201d after the first punch.<\/p>\n

The CCTV showed there was no \u201cclear pause in the confrontation\u201d \u2013 rather it was a \u201csingle, continuous and fast-moving exchange lasting approximately six seconds\u201d, O\u2019Neill wrote.<\/p>\n

The adjudicator was critical of the \u201cconcentration of functions\u201d in the site manager, Sean Canavan, whom he called \u201cthe architect\u201d of the disciplinary process from beginning to end.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill had further concerns with the expansion of the disciplinary charges against Loughran between the investigation stage and the disciplinary meeting; the failure to investigate inconsistencies in witness statements, and the \u201creinvestigation\u201d of allegations during the disciplinary meeting by Canavan.<\/p>\n

He was also concerned about a finding by Miriam Wilkin, the company\u2019s assigned appeals officer, who found Loughran \u201chad pursued the driver around his vehicle\u201d \u2013 a finding the disciplinary panel had not made at all, O\u2019Neill noted.<\/p>\n

In setting redress, O\u2019Neill noted Loughran had told him he wanted to go back to his former post.<\/p>\n

Canavan had objected strongly to this, but there was no evidence of any breakdown in relations between the claimant and his immediate colleagues on the factory floor, the adjudicator added.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill wrote that he would not award full reinstatement with back pay for the 15 months Loughran was jobless, as the worker had committed \u201cserious misconduct\u201d.<\/p>\n

He directed the firm to re-engage Loughran as a production operator or in an equivalent post starting from the week after next, and to treat the period since his dismissal as unpaid suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complainant has paid a huge price for conduct that was of his own making, and I am satisfied that the time has now come for that price to be brought to an end,\u201d O\u2019Neill added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A worker at a pharma firm sacked after getting into a fist-fight with a takeaway driver in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[261818,79,18,19,17,80,81],"class_list":["post-620167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-almac","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-work","tag-workplace-relations-commission"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117038068969003198","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620167","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=620167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}