Unfair Dismissal Advice

Conchubar24

I need some help, I'm wondering what to do about the pub I work for firing me for something I didn't do. Sorry in advance for the wall of text that's going to follow.

I worked for a bar/nightclub in Dublin City Centre. My job consisted of cleaning glasses, washing dishes, keeping my work area clean and doing any other tasks asked of me by management. I was a part time worker getting anywhere from 8-40 hours per week depending on what nights I was needed. Not sure if it'll be relevant but I was also being paid minimum wage.

The management structure of the bar and their duties is basically this:

The owner of the bar came in once or twice a week to make sure everything was running smoothly, I never saw him but was told by my co workers that that's what he does.

The owner has 3 general managers under him who look after the day to day activities of the bar. I engaged with these men on a daily basis, they made my rosters and told me what to do for the night.

Then come the employees. The bar is also a restaurant during the morning/day. The restaurant workers consist mainly of Irish people. I was rarely given hours in the restaurant and mostly worked nights. I don't want to sound racist but the majority of the night workers seemed to be foreigners who had very little English and whenever I would try to interact with them or ask for help I would just recieve shrugs and puzzled faces.
Only one of the managers is Irish and he still remains the nicest manager I've ever had. The other two managers are foreign and both seemed to have some kind of grudge against me from the moment I started working there almost two months ago. Whenever I worked and either of them were the manager for the night my working life would become significantly harder. They would give me tasks that were near on impossible for one person to do and then shout at me for not getting them done quick enough, they would also talk to the other workers in their own language when I was around and I'm pretty sure they were talking about me because on several occasions they would both look at me as they talked and it was more than just a glance they would literally stare at me as I worked and they talked.

So now I'll go over the events leading up to my termination. One Sunday I was working downstairs washing the dishes and cleaning the glasses and before my shift ended I cleaned my work area and left for the night. I wasn't due in again until the following Friday. The next Friday I came in and began working as usual, this time I was working upstairs in the bar. One of the foreign managers approached me shortly after I started working and asked me about my previous shift on the Sunday, (bear in mind that everything that happens next is in front of and around customers and colleagues) he asked if I'd been working upstairs because apparently the place had been left in a complete mess to which I replied that I hadn't, he then said that I better not be lying because he is going to check the cameras and that I'll be in huge trouble if I'm lying, I told him that he should go and check the cameras because I definitely wasn't working upstairs that day. About 20 minutes later he approaches me again and says that the hours that'd been given to me for the following week were going to be the last hours that I'd be working there and he said that If I left before I'd worked all the hours the following week that he wouldn't be providing me with a reference. I continued to work and within minutes was approached by several colleagues who'd already heard that I'd been fired from co workers who saw me get fired and were asking if I was ok. Then several customers came up to me and asked if I was ok.

This whole situation has left me embarrassed beyond words, when all of the staff I was friendly with and the customers were approaching me and asking if I was ok I was absolutely mortified. What I want to know is whether I have any kind of legal recourse as I want to prevent this from happening again and I feel like an injustice has been done to me honestly.

Serjeant Buzfuz

Mod:

Post edited to remove legal advice given.

Legal advice is not allowed here.

Conchubar24

Thanks for the reply, can you tell me what information I would need to go about pursuing a claim like that? Would you also be able to tell me what the basis for that claim are? It's just so I understand myself.

Focusdpc

No real advice to give you but if what you said is true it's very bad form from the manager in question!

I remember many many, many years ago a manager ridiculed one of my co-workers in front of all of us as that is what he was used to doing, but this guy was new, and lets say the manager got a lot more than he bargained for to say the least! Shut the f*ucker up for a good while, so that was all good.

Again, sorry to hear about your situation, all the best in the future as not all jobs and people are like that

Focus

Conchubar24

Focusdpc wrote: »

No real advice to give you but if what you said is true it's very bad form from the manager in question!

I remember many many, many years ago a manager ridiculed one of my co-workers in front of all of us as that is what he was used to doing, but this guy was new, and lets say the manager got a lot more than he bargained for to say the least! Shut the f*ucker up for a good while, so that was all good.

Bad form indeed! Yeah unfortunately the slap I would have given him would have been nothing compared to the punch I would've gotten back! The real slap in the face was that I thought I'd been working really hard there but c'est la vie. Thank you for the kind words!

MarkAnthony

Speak to a solicitor if you're serious about doing anything.

One who has experience is employment law and potentially defamation. I stress though that nothing will come of anything without speaking to a solicitor. Go to FLAC (google) if you want a first glance opinion.

Conchubar24

MarkAnthony wrote: »

Speak to a solicitor if you're serious about doing anything.

That's the next step, yeah. I posted here to get some feedback and to see if what happened had any legal merit, thanks for the help, much appreciated!

Little CuChulainn

Is there an internal HR procedure or can any manager hire and fire who they want?