THE FINANCIAL controller of one of Limerick’s biggest car dealerships has secured a High Court order preventing his dismissal from his employment.
Yesterday, Mr Justice Bryan McMahon granted Dereck Costelloe (35), Suirvale, Farranshone Road, Limerick, an interim injunction on an ex parte (one side only) basis preventing his employer, Pat Keogh Limited, Tipperary Road, Limerick, from terminating his contract of employment and from holding meetings at which the terms of Mr Costelloe’s employment would be discussed.
The judge made the matter returnable to a date later this month.
Hugh Mohan SC, for Mr Costelloe, told the court that a series of meetings were due to be held by the defendant company yesterday at which his client’s contract of employment would be terminated.
It was their case that the meetings, which were a disciplinary process, were fundamentally unfair and amounted to a breach of natural justice.
In an affidavit to the court, Mr Costelloe, a qualified accountant, said he was appointed financial controller of the company in September 2005.
He said that he had a number of personal and operational issues with his immediate line supervisor, Frank Hogbin, the dealer principal of the company.
He said their relationship had deteriorated since Mr Hogbin’s appointment in September 2007, whom he said has made no attempt to understand his approach to his management role in the company.
He also stated there had been a number of flashpoints between the two which Mr Costelloe said left him feeling isolated and undermined.
Mr Costelloe said he believed Mr Hogbin had made complaints and repeatedly tried to convene investigations against him.
He added that he did not believe that he would get a fair hearing if it is presided over by Mr Hogbin.
Mr Costelloe said that in the company’s employee handbook, it was stated that if a grievance involved personal issues that the aggrieved party felt could not be dealt with by a direct supervisor, the employee should seek involvement of other senior managers.