Business

Seventh worker at banking tech start-up wins unpaid wages claim

Fintech entrepreneur Roy Zakka accused of making derogatory comments about Irish people during a phone call with an employee at Layer Digital Solutions Ltd

File photograph

Stephen Bourke
Thu Apr 4 2024 - 17:27

Fintech entrepreneur Roy Zakka was accused of making “derogatory remarks about Irish people” by a former senior employee who has won more than €90,000 in backpay and compensation for unfair dismissal.

The remarks, which were referred to in a decision of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) published on Thursday were alleged to have been made by the businessman in a phone call with a former employee of Layer Digital Solutions Ltd, Mary O’Dell, around the end of May last year.

The company is now subject to orders for backpay and compensation worth over €240,000 following the latest awards to Ms O’Dell – having already been ordered to pay sums ranging from €18,125 to €35,057 to six other employees, including former senior staff at the firm, since last autumn.

Ms O’Dell, who was a senior client delivery manager at the company earning €99,750 a year, has been awarded €91,188.13 on foot of complaints under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 and the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against the company.

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Mr Zakka was said to have been “completely unprofessional” on the call and blamed an Irish executive for the circumstances of the company – which had just failed to make payroll four days earlier and told a number of its Irish staff they were to be made redundant, the tribunal was told.

As the case was heard in the absence of the respondent, the WRC decision records no response to the allegations by Mr Zakka or the firm, though the tribunal was satisfied Layer was on notice of the hearing on March 5th this year.

Ms O’Dell, who was represented by Conor McCrave of Setanta Solicitors, had not been paid her salary since April 28th, 2023 the tribunal was told. With other colleagues experiencing similar issues with non-payment of wages, a “serious morale issue” was developing at the firm, it was submitted.

The complainant had been told the company was trying to secure a loan from a Saudi company and that the pay problems would be addressed when it was finalised, the tribunal was told.

Her emails to Mr Zakka and the company’s HR director Jacqueline Haddad Zakka went unanswered before she learned from colleagues on May 29th that they had received emails making them redundant, the tribunal heard. The following day, her line manager, Paul Cunningham, told her that he had been dismissed, it was submitted.

Ms O’Dell’s case is that on the same day, or around that date, Mr Zakka told her by email that he was taking over Mr Cunningham’s responsibilities, and later called her.

“The complainant took that call, and Mr Zakka acted in a completely unprofessional manner. He made derogatory remarks about Irish people and spoke negatively about the performance of [Mr Cunningham], appearing to place blame on him for the circumstances in Mr Zakka’s own company,” the tribunal noted in a record of the complainant’s submission.

Correspondence and meetings continued between Ms O’Dell, Mr Zakka and the HR director into July and August that year, the tribunal heard.

The worker ultimately had her solicitors write to the firm in September, 2023 stating that she had no choice except to take it that her employment had been terminated as she had not been paid for months and a formal grievance had gone unanswered, the tribunal was told.

In his decision, adjudicator Jim Dolan wrote that he had to examine the reasonableness of the employer’s actions as well as the significance of the alleged breach of contract – or whether it showed the employer no longer intended to be bound by an essential term of the employment contract.

“The employer has failed and failed miserably in both tests,” Mr Dolan wrote, ruling that the firm was in breach of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and awarding €52,368.75 in compensation.

He also ordered the company to pay Ms O’Dell €38,819.38 worth of unpaid wages. The total awarded to Ms O’Dell on foot of her complaints was €91,188.13.

Ms O’Dell is the seventh former employee of the banking tech start-up to win a claim for unpaid wages. The wages order in her case exceeds the €35,057 awarded to her former line manager, Paul Cunningham, last autumn.

In a separate decision released today, the WRC rejected a claim for €12,000 made by former Layer contractor Rodrique Rizk, who said he was owed the sum for his work for the firm in June, July and August last year.

Mr Rizk, with a business address in a suburb of Beiruit, Lebanon, was deemed not to have been an employee of Layer at the material time by Mr Dolan, who also heard Mr Rizk’s claim under the Payment of Wages Act, and therefore not entitled to recover the sum.

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