A FORMER manager who claimed he resigned after being told to “obstruct” Gardaí and health inspectors in the middle of a massive vermin infestation at a Limerick Homesavers Store has been awarded €30,000 in compensation.
The Workplace Relations Commission heard that legions of mice living in the City East Retail park branch of Homesavers would set off alarms at night and manager Darrell Donnelly and staff would spend hours every morning “on our hands and knees” cleaning up droppings and urine.
Mr Donnelly said he notified the area manager of the problem and requested that it be resolved but no action was taken beyond bait boxes being attended to by a pest control company.
In April 2022, the manager of the pest control company inspected the store and said that the solution was a complete fumigation. However, the following month, the Homesavers area manager advised that the owner was not going to take any further steps against the mouse infestation.
In evidence, Mr Donnelly said that in July 2022, the Environmental Health Officers visited the shop. The former manager said he rang the commercial manager and was told that the inspectors were “not to walk around or take pictures”.
Mr Donnelly said that the inspectors came back with Gardaí, at which point he rang the commercial manager who told him that under no circumstances were they to be allowed in to take pictures.
Gardaí told Mr Donnelly that they would prosecute him for not giving access to the pest control books and warehouse, which he says caused him “enormous stress” despite no prosecution forthcoming.
The former manager said that he was under pressure and forced into a position of being uncooperative with the authorities who were trying to investigate a serious public health problem.
In early September 2022, he complained to both the commercial and area managers about being put in a position of being instructed to lie to government officials.
Mr Donnelly tendered his notice but was persuaded to withdraw it with the offer of more help in the store. When the commercial manager visited the store on September 13, he asked Mr Donnelly about the withdrawn resignation.
The commercial manager told Mr Donnelly that he would be moving to the Nenagh Homesavers branch for the sake of his mental health, however the former manager said this wouldn’t be possible as he was no longer driving as the result of a road incident.
Mr Donnelly said he was told to go home and take time off on full pay and report to Nenagh the following Monday morning.
Mr Donnelly never returned to the store and ultimately resigned in order to look for another job.
He described the report issued by the operator of the store following a grievance hearing which he attended as “disingenuous”.
In their submission, the operators contended that the move was a temporary one to alleviate the pressure and stress being suffered by Mr Donnelly, which he denied.
They contended that he had “not met the criteria necessary to meet the burden of proof required in relation to bring a successful claim for penalisation”.
In her decision, Workplace Relations Commission adjudication officer Ewa Sobanska said that she was “satisfied, on the balance of probabilities that, were it not for his complaints regarding health and safety, the complainant would not have been sent home and moved to another location”.
“Accordingly, I find that the aforementioned complaints were an operative reason for sending the complainant home and moving him to Nenagh, and that his complaint of penalisation has been made out.”
Mr Donnelly was awarded €30,000 in compensation.
