Business

Ousted co-founder wins over €156,000 after friction at vegan skincare firm

Counsel submits ‘no process whatsoever’ employed to terminate Jeroen Proos’s job at Human + Kind Ltd and that situation had amounted to ‘summary dismissal’

The co-founder of a vegan cosmetics company who was ousted from the firm in 2022 has been awarded more than €156,000 for unfair dismissal and unpaid wages. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times

Mon May 13 2024 - 19:37

The co-founder of a vegan cosmetics company ousted from the firm in 2022 has won more than €156,000 for unfair dismissal and unpaid wages at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

The awards were made on foot of complaints under the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977, and the Payment of Wages Act, 1991 against Human + Kind Ltd, a company marketing vegan skincare products which was cofounded by Jeroen Proos in 2013 and is now in liquidation.

Mr Proos told the WRC at a hearing last month he had worked as the company’s general manager, with responsibility for sales and marketing, until his dismissal in November 2022. He told the tribunal that the employment relationship had been “challenging” before his dismissal.

Mr Proos referred to a phone call in November 2021 from the Human + Kind chief executive accusing him of failing to provide the services set out in his contract of employment – which he disputed – and seeking to “renegotiate” his terms.

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It followed a decision earlier in 2021 by the company’s board to cut Mr Proos’s €126,000-a-year salary between July and September that year after water damage to a shipping container full of merchandise resulted in €300,000 of losses.

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Cian Cotter BL, appearing for Mr Proos and instructed by Fitzgerald Legal and Advisory LLP, submitted that his client agreed to a monthly pay cut from €10,500 to €4,436 per month for the period on the basis that the shortfall would be paid back to him when the firm’s financial position improved.

Mr Proos’s pay went back up to €10,500 between October and December that year, the tribunal heard.

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However, in November 2021, the company’s chief executive wrote to Mr Proos telling him: “I’d like to go ahead and give notice so we can start working down the notice period, and we will either renegotiate the employment terms by the end of the notice period or your employment will terminate,” he said.

Mr Proos’s contract required 12 months’ notice, and notice of termination was given the following day, the tribunal was told. In January 2022, his salary was “unlawfully” and “unilaterally” cut to €6,250, it was submitted.

It was cut again in April that year to €1,500, which he continued to receive until he was dismissed in November 2022, his lawyers told the tribunal.

Mr Cotter submitted that his client had objected to the January 2022 salary cut with a legal letter and had not consented to the further cut to his pay either.

Counsel submitted that there was “no process whatsoever” employed to terminate Mr Proos’s job and that it amounted to “summary dismissal”. Nor had the complainant been paid any statutory redundancy, he further submitted.

There was no appearance by the company at a hearing last month. Adjudicator Conor Stokes noted correspondence stating the firm was in liquidation and that its liquidator did not intend to come.

Written statements alleging that the complainant’s performance was “poor” and that he had failed to fulfil commitments were not backed up by any witness testimony, he noted.

Mr Proos’s case was that no allegation of misconduct was ever put to him before the decision to dismiss him without procedures or a right of appeal, Mr Stokes noted – a contention not challenged by the respondent.

He ruled the dismissal unfair and awarded Mr Proos €101,000 for lost earnings from unfair dismissal – 12 months’ pay for the complainant, less a sum of €25,000 the complainant had earned following his termination.

Mr Stokes also ruled there had been shortfalls in Mr Proos’s wages between January and October 2022 totalling €53,623 under the Payment of Wages Act 1991, and made an order for the payment of the sum subject to statutory deductions.

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