A Fórsa member who was sacked by Donegal County Council for alleged underperformance has been awarded €10,000 in a WRC adjudication on unfair dismissal.

Former lifeguard supervisor Lisa Dalton was dismissed by the county council following what the local authority claimed was a “probation review” in November 2021. The local authority claimed Ms Dalton was still on probation at the time of her dismissal and could not be protected by the Unfair Dismissals Act.

However, the WRC adjudication found that when Ms Dalton was dismissed in November 2021, she had the protection of the legislation, despite the claims by Donegal County Council.

In her submission to the WRC Ms Dalton said that when she was asked to attend a work performance review meeting in November 2021, her line manager went through a review document which she then signed, believing it to be an advisory document as to how she should improve her work.

Fórsa official Michelle Connaughton, who represented Ms Dalton in the adjudication, explained that Ms Dalton was not advised to bring a representative to the meeting, and hadn’t noticed that the document included a question as to whether he line manger would recommend her for the (permanent) role, and that this was ticked “no.”

Michelle added: “Ms Dalton believed that once her probation period ended in April 2021, her position was permanent. She had worked as well as she could and did not accept that her work was under-par. If she’d known that the meeting was to determine whether she kept her job or not, she would not have signed the document.

“The adjudication award is in respect of lost income. It has been an understandably stressful experience for Ms Dalton but the adjudication outcome has found that she was unfairly dismissed and illustrates the added protection of her union membership in addressing the dismissal,” she said.

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