An aggrieved former employee of Local Ireland, 90 per cent owned by Eircom, told the Employment Appeals Board yesterday he was frozen out of the company despite his consistently diligent performance in his three years as an employee there and at sister company Nua.
Mr Niall Swan, who was hired by Nua boss Mr Gerry McGovern over dinner in a Japanese restaurant in New York, never had a contract with either Local Ireland or Nua but had a "gentleman's agreement" to assume his $90,000 (#105,337) a year job which involved setting up and developing a presence for the Internet company in New York.
In July 1998, Eircom used Internet publisher Nua as a vehicle to make its first significant entry into the commercial Inter net market when it took a 90 per cent shareholding in Local Ireland, a fledgling Internet site created by Nua. As part of the deal, it took a 20 per cent stake in Nua. Both Nua and Local Ireland, a portal site which featured a genealogy service aimed primarily at Ireland's diaspora in the US, went into liquidation earlier this year.
Ernst & Young, appointed liquidator to Local Ireland and Nua, was represented by Arthur Cox Solicitors at the meeting. Solicitor Mr Roddy Tyler represented Mr Swan. There was no representation for either Local Ireland or Nua at yesterday's hearing.
Mr Swan said he got very little support from the Local Ireland staff in Dublin to help him set up a presence in the US and wrote several e-mails to his superiors complaining about this.
He said he felt he was pushed sideways when Ms Therese McCarthy was hired as commerce manager and he was told to report to her. Ms McCarthy initially visited New York one week in four but the relationship between her and Mr Swan swiftly deteriorated and he said she became increasingly abrasive towards him.
Mr Swan said she accused him of being foolish, incompetent, unprofessional and a loose canon ready to go off. Despite growing tensions between Mr Swan and Ms McCarthy, he was given a raise of $15,000 to bring his original salary of $75,000 up to $90,000 in the latter half of 1999 and was one of the highest paid employees in the company.
Mr Swan wrote a lengthy account of the escalating grievances to Mr McGovern, who advised he should go through the normal channels to address them. A mediation meeting was set up by head of human resources Ms Noleen Donnelly for Mr Swan and Ms McCarthy to air their views.
Mr Swan said he did not think Ms Donnelly was impartial in her role as mediator and seemed to be taking Ms McCarthy's side. He said Ms Donnelly's lack of impartiality was further highlighted by an e-mail sent by Local Ireland general manager Mr Michael Kelleher immediately after the mediation meeting via Ms Donnelly and forwarded to Mr Swan which was headlined "Your views before I lob another bomb into Niall Swan's ego".
Mr Swan said he believed the sender of the e-mail forgot to strip off the heading before it reached him.
His next e-mail from Mr Kelleher accused Mr Swan of not being able to handle a hierarchical structure and of "being very difficult to manage". In a separate e-mail, Mr Kelleher said if Mr Swan did not accept he was part of the problem Mr Swan would be better off working for himself.
He was demoted again to what he considered the lowliest position a person in his line of business could get as a seller of banner advertisements for the website in New York. In September 2000, he resigned from his post saying he was very frustrated and depressed by what was going on and felt he was being frozen out of the company.
He claimed constructive dismissal. The appeals board, chaired by Mr Gerry Brady, said it would issue an order on the case in about four to six weeks.
