A company executive has been awarded her full losses of €60,000 after spending six months out of work as the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found she was “undoubtedly caused difficulty” in her job hunt by her ex-employer’s “unreasonable” failure to tell her why she was let go. The WRC has directed Horizon Controls Ltd to pay its former chief financial officer, Helen Nason, the sum as compensation under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 for termination-related losses. In April 2024, Nason was told she “no longer had a job and would be let go”, the WRC was told. “When she asked for a reason for her dismissal, none was forthcoming from the HR manager or the CEO.” There was no right of appeal given and Nason found herself cut off from the company’s computer systems within minutes, it was submitted. The tribunal noted “evidence of a background of financial difficulties” at the company in a decision published on Wednesday. Nason told the WRC that, prior to her dismissal, she had warned the company’s chief executive “several times” about risks with an investment into a technology which was “not profitable” while failing to invest in parts of the business which were performing. Around two or three months before her dismissal, the business “lost a multimillion euro contract”, she added. The business’s profit and loss account for its interests in Europe was “under budget” by 15 per cent in March 2024, rising to 18 per cent in April that year, a solicitor for the company submitted. Nason’s dismissal was “genuine and legitimate” and arose due to redundancy, the business’s solicitor added, but the company accepted “the manner in which [the] termination was conducted was flawed”. As Nason was involved in redundancy processes that had already cut 11 jobs before her position was eliminated, its solicitor argued that she knew the business was “not performing”. Some 17 more jobs had been cut since Nason was let go, and 20 other posts left vacant by resignations were not replaced, it was further submitted. Short-term working and salary cuts had also been brought in in an attempt to secure the company’s financial viability, the WRC was told. Nason’s solicitor said she was denied fair procedures and the company could not show there were any substantial grounds for her dismissal. Nason gave evidence that she applied for 146 positions in the six months she spent out of work. Nason said the fact that she was given no reason for her dismissal caused “difficulty” finding re-employment, and there were not many openings for chief financial officer jobs. The company submitted that Nason “should not have been six months out of work” given her background as the chief financial officer of a multinational firm.Rejecting this argument in her decision, adjudicator Davnet O’Driscoll said Ms Nason’s record of job applications was “extensive” and that she was satisfied the worker’s efforts to mitigate her losses were “reasonable”. “The failure to provide any reason was, of itself, unreasonable and undoubtedly caused difficulty for the complainant in seeking other employment,” O’Driscoll wrote. As the complainant’s new job was on a lower rate of pay, Nason’s financial losses continued after she found new work and had reached €60,230 when the case was heard in May this year, O’Driscoll wrote. Upholding the complaint, she concluded it was “just and equitable” that the company pay Nason her full losses.