ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

A retail worker was dismissed by a Dublin fashion retailer after complaining to the Health and Safety Authority about the lack of a washroom in the workplace.

The Yaya boutique has been ordered to pay €7,500 in compensation to Fiona Bird following a Workplace Relations Commission review.

When Bird started work at Yaya she said there were some inevitable start-up problems. But the biggest issue was the lack of a staff washroom, which also meant there was no onsite hand washing facility.

The employer made arrangements with the coffee shop next door to allow staff members to use their customers' toilets. But Bird said this was not always convenient or satisfactory.

When this situation went on for several months, Bird reported the issue to the HAS. She later discovered that the Authority had contacted her employer about the matter.

She was told to leave five months after starting work at the store. She claimed to be shocked at her dismissal since no probationary period had been mentioned and there had been no suggestion that her employers were unhappy with her work.

The employer said Bird was being dismissed for poor performance because her sales were not as good as those of her five colleagues. But adjudicator Penelope McGrath ruled this out as a reason for Bird's dismissal, while Bird herself said she believed she was being penalised for having raised an issue with the HSA.

Besides being ordered to pay €7,500 compensation to Bird under Section 28 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, GB Agencies Galway Limited, trading as YaYa was also ordered to pay an additional €1,890 for various breaches of employment legislation. These included a failure to provide Bird with a written contract and for changing the terms of her employment in relation to a probationary period.