A trainee counsellor who was unfairly dismissed by a health board has been awarded over €2,500 in compensation by an employment appeals tribunal.
The tribunal yesterday harshly criticised the East Coast Area Health Board for the way it met the case taken against it by Ms Beverley Bedard, a Canadian living in Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
The tribunal said the board "showed a total lack of respect or consideration for the tribunal". On the first occasion the case was listed, the board's representative was unprepared, and on the adjourned date the person who decided to terminate Ms Bedard's employment did not attend.
The tribunal heard that Ms Bedard started working with the board on a two-year contract in September 1999. Her employment involved doing a course on counselling drug-addicts.
She required a work permit, and when it emerged that she would not have the course finished before her contract expired, she was given an extension, subject to the board securing a new work permit. The board said it became clear in September 2001 that the permit would not be issued within the new time-frame, and her employment was terminated. Ms Bedard said the delay should not have been a problem as she had worked from September 2000 to June 2001 without one.
A spokesman said yesterday the board had co-operated as much as it could with the tribunal.