A trader who worked for a fund management company owned by the financier, Mr Dermot Desmond, was told to leave his job immediately after being told on a Friday afternoon that his services were no longer required, the Employment Appeals Tribunal heard yesterday.

Mr Padraig O'Sullivan, of Beechlawn, Dundrum, Dublin, who worked for Gandon Investment Fund Management in the IFSC, brought a case for unfair dismissal without notice against his former employers after losing his job last October with four other employees. His loss of earnings was calculated at £10,900.

Mr O'Sullivan told the tribunal chairman Ms Sarah Berkeley, with Mr Michael Dunne and Mr Sam Nolan, that he traded futures using a complex computer system. An assistant trader, Mr Angus O'Gorman, had been employed in his section, and Mr O'Gorman had been retained at his employment.

Mr O'Sullivan was given a month's pay and later, following correspondence, was offered three months' full pay as redundancy, holiday pay and the company car he drove at half its book value.

The press was excluded from the hearing for 50 minutes after an internal Gandon document was produced which suggested alternative ways of turning the business around after it ran into difficulties between 1995 and 1997.

Earlier, a director of the company, Mr Chris McHugh, said that it was normal industry practice that employees would leave immediately.

Mr O'Sullivan, in his testimony, denied that the practice was normal, saying that he recalled other employees serving out notice at work. He had found new employment since January 1st and was now on a £44,000 salary, but with no pension scheme.

Mr McHugh told the tribunal that the company, which had 20 employees in 1995, had two "trade methodologies", one "Global", which involved trading on assets, and the "Breakout" one, a computer-based systematic way of trading on futures stock. Managing funds of $180 million, Gandon Investment Fund Management was bought by Mr Dermot Desmond and Mr Mike Cullen in 1995 from Gandon Holdings for £4.5 million, with Mr Desmond acquiring a 75 per cent stake. The company had moved to the IFSC, sharing a premises with Mr Desmond's company, International Investment Underwriters (IIU), and later Gandon was taken over completely by the financier.

Mr O'Hanlon, summing up, said that the substance of the position between Gandon and IIU was that they were one, with an internal business and an external business, and he was urging the tribunal to pay particular attention to that. Mr Tom Mallon, for Gandon, told the tribunal that Gandon's income had been "on a steep gallop downwards" and one of the options was to cut costs. Mr O'Sullivan had accepted that the redundancy option was consistent with the industry norm.

Ms Berkeley said that a written recommendation would be issued in due course and following details submitted on the pensions issue.