The Central Bank of Ireland has reached a settlement with a forensic investigator it sacked after she complained of alleged "ill treatment by a manager".
The deal was confirmed to the Workplace Relations Commission today when the worker, Nigar Babayeva, signed papers withdrawing complaints she had brought under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 and the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 against the State agency.
Whistleblower penalisation had been alleged.
The tribunal heard Ms Babayeva, who was dismissed by the bank in July 2023, had filed a grievance against a manager during her probationary period.
Her solicitor, Setanta Landers, told a preliminary hearing last October that "Ms Babayeva made complaints to HR about ill treatment by a particular manager. That communication was shared, we will say, with that manager by HR".
"That manager, who was not her contractual manager or overseer, fired her himself whilst she was on sick leave, and without, we say, contractual authority, so there's a real question as to whether she was terminated," he said.
"One of the grounds of appeal was his authority to dismiss her. She was managed by him, but contractually she didn't report to him. We opened up a protected disclosure about the handling of her complaint - it was handed to HR, handed back to that manager, who terminated her," Mr Landers said.
Disputing this, Niamh McGowan BL, for the respondent, said that the "allegation" about "information being shared with the manager" would be at...
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