A hair dresser who was fired after getting a junior stylist to cover for her while she got lunch has been awarded €5,000 by the Employment Appeals Tribunal.
Donna Farchione lost her job at Redcats Hair and Beauty in Galway city after getting a junior stylist to blow dry a customer's hair while she grabbed some lunch on a busy day.
The tribunal heard that it was the policy of the salon to complete the job on a client from start to finish.
The tribunal, sitting in Galway in July, was told that June 26th, 2012, had been a busy day at Redcats with back to back appointments. In order to get a lunch break, Ms Farchione asked the junior stylist to blow dry her client’s hair with the intention of returning to check the client after the blow dry was completed.
Eileen Reddin, who trades as Redcats, was unhappy with her for assigning the blow dry to the junior stylist who was in the middle of colouring hair at the time.
Angry words were exchanged and she advised Ms Farchione to “gather up your things”. The stylist interpreted this as dismissal from her employment.
She wrote to Ms Reddin the following day seeking confirmation of her position and received a response on June 28th with her P45 enclosed. The letter made reference to her walking out.
Ms Farchione wrote back on July 11th stating that the communication between them was confusing, but said she wished to return to work immediately. Ms Reddin did not contact her after that.
The tribunal said it was satisfied that subsequent to Ms Farchione receiving no response to her letter of July 11th, she was entitled to consider herself dismissed. Taking all the circumstances into consideration, the Tribunal found that she was unfairly dismissed from her employment and awarded her compensation of €5,000.