Hospital clerical worker who said she had to put up with ‘toxic’ management behaviour awarded €58,000

A hospital clerical worker has been awarded more than €58,000 for constructive dismissal after she was ordered to go into mediation with a colleague without being given a copy of the grievance he had made against her.

Upholding a complaint by the worker, Karen McHale, a Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) adjudicator agreed that Mayo University Hospital’s staff grievance management process was “fundamentally flawed”.

Ms McHale claimed she was being “bullied” into either going back to a post she had been assigned to some six years earlier or taking a demotion.

Management was “siding with” a staff member who had filed the grievance against her, leaving her “completely isolated and unable to complete her duties to the level and standard that she felt should be achieved”, her barrister, Michael Francis Forde, submitted.

Ms McHale first found out about the grievance when she met the other staff member at the direction of a senior manager for a return-to-work meeting, it was submitted.

The man said to her at the meeting she was “no doubt aware” he had made the complaint, Mr Forde submitted. Ms McHale’s position was that she was “unaware” of any complaint against her.

She sought a copy of this complaint, but hospital management did not provide it and she was instead instructed to attend mediation to resolve the complaint, it was submitted.

At mediation, the chair of that process “expressed surprise” that Ms McHale didn’t know what the complaint against her was, Mr Forde submitted. The mediator undertook to get the complaint for her, but it was still not given over, the tribunal was told.

At the same time this was going on, a number of Ms McHale’s colleagues received “an upgrade” and were instructed “not to be supervised by somebody of the same grade”, such as the complainant, leaving her “bypassed in the reporting structure”, Mr Forde submitted.

It meant when she was required to provide information in weekly management reports she had to get it from her line manager, counsel added.

Ms McHale said the situation was “intolerable” and that she was being asked to put up with “toxic behaviour” on the part of her employer.

She took the view she could not rely on the workplace grievance process, having regard to the handling of the grievance against her, which was “going on for too long” and in which she contended she was denied “basic rights”.

She resigned on March 17th, 2024 after a period of sick leave, without putting in a formal grievance. Mayo University Hospital employee relations manager Rory Kavanagh told the WRC Ms McHale “did not exhaust all avenues open to resolve her grievance internally before resigning” and could not claim she had been unfairly dismissed.

He said it was correct that it had not given Ms McHale a copy of the complaint made against her and that she was instructed to go to mediation without seeing it.

Adjudication officer Conor Stokes wrote in his decision that a reasonable employer would have concluded the grievance process in place was “fundamentally flawed”.

“Having regard to her repeated attempts to have sight of the complaint against her or to have more than a brief overview of it, I’m satisfied that she was left with no option other than to resign in all the circumstances,” he wrote.

He awarded her €58,681.60 for the employer’s breach of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.

Ms McHale was suffering an ongoing a loss of earnings at the time the case was heard, Mr Stokes noted – but the largest part of the sum, €41,831, reflecting the loss of a pension lump sum following 23 years’ qualifying service.

Mr Forde was instructed by Aileen Feely of JV Geary Solicitors for Ms McHale.