Boss sprayed fired worker with perfume

A MANAGER referred to a worker as ‘his b***h’ and sprayed him with perfume, telling him: ‘Let’s see how you explain that when you get home’, a Workplace Relations Commission hearing has heard.

The worker was awarded €26,000 after the WRC also heard the service manager turned a fire extinguisher on him while he was working under a car – and later posted a video of it on Facebook.

He was unfairly dismissed two days after he emailed the company’s managing director to complain about bullying, the commission found.

The service manager had said that what went on in the workplace was ‘banter’.

The worker, a full-time member of the firm’s maintenance yard staff and ‘winter services’ driver, said that when the fire extinguisher video, which he showed at the hearing, was posted on Facebook, members of his motorbike club – which also included the service manager and other staff – saw it.

After the club president saw it, the service manager was expelled.

The worker also said that he heard the service manager telling the company’s managing director that the way to treat the worker was to knock him down to build him up.

And he said that the service manager, who knew the worker was on medication for mental health issues, told him to go home and take Prozac.

The worker said that eventually, he could take no more and left work, emailing the managing director to make a formal bullying complaint against the service manager.

He added in his email that he loved the job he was doing but that he should not have to put up with what he was going through.

He was asked to attend a meeting with the MD two days later and the service manager was also there.

There, the worker was presented with a list of grievances against him. He said these were false and that he left the meeting due to the absence of any fair procedures. On the same day, he received an email from the MD saying he was dismissed with immediate effect.

The service manager denied bullying and described his actions as ‘banter’.

However, WRC adjudication officer Gerry Rooney stated that it wouldn’t be reasonable to refer to it as ‘banter’.

He said: ‘I find that what appears to have occurred does demonstrate an extraordinary culture of behaviour in the workplace.’ He added that instead of dealing with the concerns, the employer ‘chose to proceed to summarily dismiss the complainant’.