Ireland

Kitchen porter left jobless after fatal shooting at Blanchardstown steakhouse awarded €22,000

WRC orders Browne’s Steakhouse proprietor to pay sum to Gedeminas Urbasius

The restaurant has not reopened since the shooting. Photograph: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos
The restaurant has not reopened since the shooting. Photograph: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos
Stephen Bourke
Thu Sept 05 2024 - 11:43

A kitchen porter left jobless in the wake of the Browne’s Steakhouse fatal shooting last Christmas Eve has secured an order requiring his former employer to pay him a redundancy lump sum worth nearly €22,000.

Gunman Tristan Sherry (26) was killed after he shot and fatally injured 48-year-old Jason Hennessy Senior last Christmas Eve at the busy restaurant on Main Street, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15.

It was the last day of 18-and-a-half years’ service at the restaurant for kitchen porter Gedeminas Urbasius, who told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) last month that he had heard “nothing” from his employer since the night of the killings.

The employment tribunal upheld a complaint under the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 against the operator of the restaurant, San Siro Ltd, trading as Browne’s Steakhouse, in a decision published on Thursday.

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Mr Urbasius told a hearing in August this year that he had worked at Browne’s since June 2005 and was earning an average of €576.92 for a working week varying from 47 to 60 hours when his employment ended.

The worker exhibited a letter he sent by registered post to his former employer on April 26th this year applying for a payment of statutory redundancy.

In it, he wrote: “I fully understand that this may be a difficult situation for you as well, however I have no other option as [I] have no information whatsoever and believe redundancy payment is the right decision in these circumstances.”

Mr Urbasius’s evidence was that the restaurant closed on December 24th, 2024 and “has not reopened since”. He had “heard nothing” from his employer in the time since, he added.

WRC adjudicator Eileen Campbell recorded in her decision that she adjourned the case earlier this year to make sure the proprietor of the restaurant business was on notice, that the businessman was “properly on notice” when the matter was called on again in August and that he made no appearance before her.

She found that nothing had been paid to Mr Urbasius in respect of redundancy by the time of the hearing last month.

“In circumstances where the respondent has ceased to carry on business where the complainant was employed, I find a redundancy situation applies and I find the claim for a redundancy payment to be well-founded,” she wrote.

Ms Cambell wrote that the calculation of the statutory redundancy lump sum was a matter for the Department of Social Protection, as officials would have to examine the record of Mr Urbasius’s social insurance contributions to confirm the entitlement.

Based on the statutory formula, Mr Urbasius’s pay on termination and his 18.5 years’ service, the value of his statutory redundancy entitlement once confirmed would be nearly €22,000.

Four men face trial before the Special Criminal Court in November charged with Sherry’s murder.

They are Noah Musueni (18), Corduff Park, Blanchardstown; Wayne Deegan (26), Linnetsfield Avenue, Phibblestown, Dublin 15; David Amah (18), Hazel Grove, Portrane Road, Donabate, Dublin; and Michael Andrecut (22), Sheephill Avenue, Blanchardstown.

Jonas Kabangu (18) is charged with violent disorder at the same location on that date, as is a young man who recently reached the age of 18 and cannot be named.

A seventh accused, Jaures Kumbu (18), Brookhaven Grove, Blanchardstown, is charged with possession of a submachine gun contrary to Section 27A (1) of the Firearms Act, at Main Street, Blanchardstown on the same date.

The trial is expected to last four weeks.