Alcoholic supermarket manager sacked after getting drunk at work awarded £34k
A supermarket manager has been awarded over £34,000 in damages after he successfully sued his employers for discrimination after being sacked for drinking vodka at work until he was “comatose”.
Eamon Murphy, who is an alcoholic, had been left in charge of Connolly’s Supervalu in Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, in Ireland while the store’s owners were away.
He had previously been disciplined at work for a series of “alcoholic-related issues” but had then been declared fit for work by the company’s doctor.
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An employment tribunal heard that Mr Murphy took “considerable volume of alcohol” to work with him on October 24, 2020 .
While at work, he drank the vodka “to such an extent that he had become completely unconscious and seriously alarmed his immediate colleagues to his wellbeing”.
Helen Barry, who was representing Mr Murphy’s employers, said that he had to be carried home by his fellow workers.
He was later sacked by Michael Connolly & Sons Ltd, which trades as Connolly’s Supervalu, for what they called an “incalculable” breach of trust.
At the tribunal, reports the Irish Independent, adjudicating officer Michael McEntee found that Mr Murphy’s alcoholism represented a “well-recognised disability” and noted his “many” previous breaches of discipline involving alcohol.
Mr McEntee wrote: “However, this was the weekend that the complainant, by his own admission, chose to bring into the store a considerable quantity of alcohol and proceeded to consume it on the premises until he became comatose.
“As store manager, with all the responsibilities attached, this, to any reasonable observer, was a catastrophic breach of trust that would render any future employment relationship very difficult, if not impossible."
But, he added, the Irish Employment Equality Act’s requirements were “paramount”, even in cases of a breach of trust.
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He wrote that the supermarket owners had taken the view that supermarket managers “do not return to work in much reduced or restricted capacities following an addiction issue” and made no efforts to seek input from an addiction counselling service.
The case was at the intersection of common law and equality law, Mr McEntee wrote – an area “largely unexplored” by the courts.
“Unless and until tested in a higher court, breach of contract or breach of trust, as argued in this case, cannot stand as an effective employer defence in an equality discrimination dismissal case,” he concluded.
He ruled that discrimination on the grounds of disability and failure to provide reasonable accommodation were “proven”.
Having been out of work for 18 weeks before starting a new job on a “radically reduced” salary of €28,000 and incurring ongoing losses up to the legal maximum of 104 weeks, Mr Murphy had lost earnings of around €103,000, Mr McEntee said.
Mr McEntee ordered redress of €39,750 (just over £34,000) to be paid to Mr Murphy – just €250 less than the maximum awardable by law.
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