A female worker has told a court she was bullied at a Dublin restaurant and at one stage had her arm burned when a hot rasher was placed on it.

The Labour Court has upheld the decision of a Rights Commissioner to grant an award of €1,000 to Samantha Murray.

Ms Murray was employed by Marinuda Ltd trading as the Fire & Stone Eatery.

The dispute concerned Ms Murray’s claim that she was constructively dismissed from her employment because of alleged bullying by another member of staff.

Ms Murray said she reported the matter to her employer who took no action to investigate the complaint or protect her against the alleged bullying.

As a consequence, she said she had no choice but to leave her employment and was thereby constructively dismissed.

Last year, a Rights Commissioner found Ms Murray had been denied fair procedures by her employer, upheld the complaint and recommended that she be paid €1,000 compensation for the loss of her employment.

The firm appealed the decision to the Labour Court.

Abuse

In her case before the court, Ms Murray claimed she was consistently bullied by another member of staff and that the bullying took the form of pushing, verbal abuse and on one occasion being burned with a hot rasher placed on the arm.

She said she reported the matter to her manager who took no action to investigate the complaints nor to protect her from the bullying and harassment.

In reply, the restaurant denied that any bullying took place.

The owner of the restaurant said there was no more than a normal level of banter taking place in the restaurant and that Ms Murray was participating in it along with the other staff.

The restaurant also stated that the duty manager would have investigated the complaints and found no evidence to substantiate them.

The restaurant also stated that there was no need for Ms Murray to resign from her position. Instead, it argued that she should have tried to resolve her personal issues with the person in question.

In its ruling, the Labour Court stated that having given careful consideration to the submissions of both parties to the dispute, it upheld the recommendation of the Rights Commissioner.

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