Courts

Gsoc complaint played no part in temporary worker’s dismissal from garda station job, WRC told

Fergus Browne was sacked after two weeks on the job and claims he was discriminated against on the basis of his Northern Ireland origins

Mr Browne said he was met with bullying, harassment and rumours when he started temporary work at Letterkenny Garda station. The force denies his claims. Photograph: Colin Keegan, Collins

Stephen Bourke
Wed Sep 14 2022 - 18:00

A temporary clerical officer sacked from a Donegal Garda station after just two weeks on the job has claimed that a prior complaint he made to Gsoc was part of the reason he was dismissed.

Fergus Browne claims the officer in charge of the station had a direct role in investigating the matter and that rumours began to circulate when he started work last year.

But the most senior civil servant in the division says the decision to sack him was hers alone — and that she knew nothing about the complaint.

Fergus Browne, who says he was discriminated against in the workplace on the basis of his origins in Northern Ireland, lodged a statutory complaint against An Garda Síochána under the Employment Equality Act which was called on for a remote hearing at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Tuesday.

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The WRC heard Mr Browne was brought for three months of administrative support to the office of the superintendent of Letterkenny Garda station starting in June 2021 — but was dismissed just a fortnight later, with his bosses claiming he was underperforming. Mr Browne maintains that was a “pretext” for his sacking and that he was met with bullying, harassment and rumours when he started work at the station. The force denies his claims.

Mr Browne said he ran into difficulties from his first day, when he was sent to a co-working space to work through induction materials alone but said he had difficulty accessing the relevant Garda systems. On his second day, he said he reported to the station again and was put at an absent colleague’s desk where he completed online courses, adding that this was the only day he had access to a computer to clock in and out.

The following day, Wednesday June 2nd, he said he reported to work at 8am and left a message with his line manager Seamus Kielty’s office saying he would wait in the canteen. “I sat in the canteen ‘til lunchtime,” he said.

After taking his lunch he said he was taken up to an office and told to make a record of the taxi drivers on file who didn’t have Irish driving licences. “That work or task was left there until I was there — to me that wasn’t proper work,” he said.

The following week he was tasked with making an inventory of the station’s contents — something he said he felt “uneasy” about doing alone as a civilian employee new to the station and dealing with senior Garda officers.

One Wednesday June 9th, he said remarks were made in his presence during the morning coffee break referring repeatedly to the “Belfast bomber”, which he said made him feel “uncomfortable”.

On the Friday, June 11th, he was called aside to a meeting with Mr Kielty and the civilian employee in charge of human resources and business services in the Donegal division, Lisa Canney, the tribunal was told. Mr Browne said they told him he was dismissed, which was confirmed by an email that afternoon signed by Mr Kielty.

Mr Browne said that he believed a Gsoc complaint he made in 2014 had been a factor in his dismissal. He said that on New Year’s Eve 2013 a number of gardaí came to his new apartment at 9.30pm and “were shouting things to make me leave the estate” and “trying to vilify me”. He said he had personally met the officer in charge of Letterkenny Garda station, Supt Michael Finan, in connection with the complaint.

Mr Browne said there was reference in a report in the respondent’s submissions to “rumours” about him, and said that his Gsoc complaint was linked to an entry on the Pulse database.

“It was gardaí investigating gardaí, which I wasn’t happy about.” he said.

Mr Browne claimed that Supt Finan “said he’d interviewed two gardaí when he hadn’t”. He said Gsoc later apologised to him, calling this a “mistake”.

The complainant said he had been “victimised” at work because of his prior complaint and that the alleged incident he complained of related to his origins in Northern Ireland.

Asked to comment on these claims by the adjudicating officer, Garda industrial relations officer Paul Hardy, who appeared for the force, said: “I haven’t made and will not make an inquiry with respect to a complaint by a separate statutory body.”

Neither Supt Finan nor Seamus Kielty, Mr Browne’s line manager, were called to give evidence, which Mr Browne said was “not acceptable”. He said he wanted to question Mr Kielty, calling him a “big player in the bullying and harassment”.

Adjudicating officer Shay Henry said it was a matter for each party to call witnesses as they saw fit.

Lisa Canney, a civilian assistant principal officer handling business services and human resources for the Donegal Garda division, said it had been brought to her attention that there were “rumours” concerning Mr Browne. She said she did not inquire into them or anything on the Pulse database and gave the matter no weight.

She said the Gsoc complaint had “absolutely no relevance”. “My decision to dismiss Mr Browne was underperformance. I would have been given evidence of this by Seamus Kielty,” she said.

Jacqueline Friel gave evidence that she made the “Belfast bomber” remarks of Wednesday June 9th, 2021, in the course of telling colleagues an anecdote from a job she’d held in the mid-1980s, and that the “Belfast bomber” remarks had not been directed at Mr Browne.

Ms Friel said she proposed doing an inventory of the Garda station’s contents when she was asked for a task to allocate to Mr Browne by Mr Kielty. “I have a lot of experience with staff… I would expect someone going into a brand new job to come in looking smart and presentable, clean, pressed trousers, a shirt, polished shoes. He [Mr Browne] was rather unkempt [and] I wasn’t aware whether anyone had made an issue of it,” she said.

Questioned by adjudicating officer Shay Henry, Ms Friel agreed that remarks in a written report stating that Mr Browne “needs a lot of hand-holding”, was “unable to use initiative” and was “totally unsuitable” as a temporary clerical officer were how she had described him.

Adjudicating officer Shay Henry closed the hearing to consider his decision, which is expected to be published in due course.

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