Ireland: Employers' duty towards non-national workers
A Labour Court decision has awarded €15,000 to a Nigerian woman who was dismissed by her employer following the accusation that she had stolen bananas.
The woman in question had been working as a catering assistant at a hostel for refugees and asylum seekers, and was accused of stealing three bananas at the end of her shift, which, the employer alleged, she was planning to eat on her way home. She maintained that she had been told that the company allowed employees to take as much food as they wanted for consumption on the premises and that she had intended to eat them while still at work.