Worker sacked over viagra claim gets €46,000
A WORKER who denied having viagra for sale in the staff canteen has been awarded more than €46,000 in compensation after an Employment Appeals Tribunal found she had been unfairly dismissed from her job.
Malgorzata Grytner, of Esmondale, Naas, Co Kildare, said she had been shocked to hear that she had been selling drugs and insisted she had told other workers she had tablets for depression.
Ms Grytner had worked for Green Isle Foods Ltd in Naas until her dismissal in March 2008.
A line manager told the tribunal a staff member reported that a drug was offered for sale in the canteen.
An employee who gave evidence said the woman came to him in the canteen saying "look what I bought in Amsterdam", and said that they were €30 each.
At a meeting on March 21, 2008, it was decided she had offered drugs for sale and was dismissed.
Denying she had sold drugs, Ms Grytner said she had joked with the witness a few weeks previously but had not shown him any tablets on the day in question.
Finding that the worker was unfairly dismissed, the tribunal awarded her €46,522.
It also awarded her €894, the equivalent of two weeks' gross pay, under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts.
- Fergus Black
Irish Independent
