Worker who bullied gay colleague awarded €3k over "procedural failure"
A hotel night manager sacked for bullying a gay colleague has won €3,000 for unfair dismissal because his employer missed an email from him attempting to appeal his firing.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has found the hotel operator, Cantarini Limited "acted reasonably" by sacking the worker, Omar Mohammed Osman – but breached the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 when it missed his email asking to exercise his right of appeal, and failed to respond.
Mr Osman, who was a night manager at the City Quay aparthotel in Dublin City Centre, was sacked on foot of findings that he was bullying a gay colleague, Mr D, because of his sexuality.
However, Mr Osman argued that he was accused of homophobia in a "thinly veiled attempt to penalise him" for raising concerns about how he was being treated by managers.
Mr D had complained that Mr Osman called him "a big homosexual" and "princess", the WRC noted. Mr D further alleged that Mr Osman called him by a nickname that "sounded like he was being referred to as an animal" – as well as whistling at him and mocking his accent.
Mr Osman's evidence to the WRC was that he has "no issue with homosexuals" and is "not homophobic", the adjudicator hearing the case noted.
He stated that he couldn't have whistled at his former colleague, because he did not "know how to whistle". He also told the tribunal that when he used the word "princess", he had been referring to a female colleague, the decision recorded.
His position was that none of the allegations made against him by Mr D were true.
The tribunal was told that prior to Mr D's complaint, Mr Osman had received a written warning by his manager for "letting the team down" by leaving work around 30 minutes into a shift in December 2023.
However, Mr Osman complained to the company that his line manager and other staff had been "in the back office when they should have been working" and that the manager was "shouting and cursing" at him, the tribunal heard.
The tribunal heard that Mr Osman emailed the company's HR manager complaining of "bullying" from a night duty team leader, Mr L, on 14 March 2024, two days before he was interviewed for the first time in connection with the harassment complaint against him.
He formalised the grievance later in the month, before being interviewed again in connection with the dignity at work investigation.
Five days later, the disciplinary process concluded with findings that Mr Osman had been "bullying and harassing a colleague in relation to their sexual orientation and race", and the complainant was dismissed.
After the matter was heard by the WRC in January, Mr Osman's legal team furnished the WRC with an email he had sent asking to appeal the dismissal.
The respondent's head of human resources, Victoria Scrase, told the WRC there was no response because the person Mr Osman had written to had themselves left the company four days after Mr Osman's sacking.
Mr Osman's position was that it was "unfair to investigate a complaint made about him when he had been complaining for six months about how he was treated and nothing had been done".
His barrister, Joseph Bradley BL, appearing instructed by Melissa Wynne of Ormonde Solicitors, submitted that his client had been subjected to "aggressive and violent outbursts at work" and had been met with a "dismissive" stance when he first complained in October 2023.
"He was accused of homophobia, in a thinly veiled attempt to penalise him for raising concerns about how he was treated by managers," Mr Bradley submitted.
Adjudicator Catherine Byrne wrote in her decision that even at hearing before the WRC, Mr Osman seemed to be "unaffected by the possibility that he offended his colleague". She did not accept his explanation for his use of the word "princess", she wrote.
"A simple acknowledgement of the effect that his behaviour had on his colleague may have made a difference and could have avoided his dismissal," Ms Byrne added.
She said she could see no alternative except to find the company was "reasonable" to dismiss Mr Osman, a worker she wrote was "unable to see the effect of his behaviour… and apologise for the distress he had caused".
"It is very regrettable that he didn't seek some wise counsel before he engaged in the disciplinary procedure that ended with his dismissal," she added.
However, she concluded that because the company did not respond to an email from Mr Osman seeking to exercise his right of appeal, the dismissal was unfair because of this "procedural failure".
Ms Byrne rejected further claims of penalisation in breach of the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 by Mr Osman.
Mr Osman's position was that he was only accused of homophobia and subjected to disciplinary action as a reaction to complaining about Mr L.
Ms Byrne concluded that that Mr Osman had played a part in the conflict among staff and that his grievances were addressed by management. He "was attempting to distract attention" from Mr D's complaint against him when he raised his grievances in March 2024, she added.
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Dublin Live
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If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can freephone the Samaritans 24 hours a day for confidential support at 116-123 or email jo@ Join our Dublin Live breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive your daily dose of Dublin Live content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. For all the latest news from Dublin and surrounding areas visit our homepage.
Sunday World
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Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
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A young man suffered fatal injuries in a fall from an apartment block in Dublin less than a week after he had been discharged from a psychiatric hospital and just seconds after talking to gardai, an inquest has heard. A sitting of Dublin District Coroner's Court heard relatives of Hassan Mohammad Osman (21) express concern about the circumstances of the death of the 21-year-old Somalian native including that they had not been informed that he had indicated he was suicidal when he was involuntarily admitted to St Vincent's Hospital in Fairview a month earlier. A postmortem showed Mr Osman died from a blunt force head injury consistent with a fall from a height. The incident occurred shortly after midnight on September 26, 2021 at Hampton Wood Point, Finglas. Mr Osman never regained consciousness and died three days later at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. Gardaí had been alerted to the scene by a local resident who had recorded a male standing on a window sill of a 4th floor apartment around 12.20am. Garda Diarmuid Murphy said Mr Osman had come down to the entrance of the apartment block by the time he and a colleague had arrived at the scene. Garda Murphy said the young man appeared slightly confused and incoherent but calm in response to some questions. On the way to the deceased's apartment, Mr Osman said he needed to finish 'the game of life' before adding: 'I am God. I must die' which Garda Murphy said he found 'alarming.' Garda Murphy said he followed Mr Osman into his bedroom to check the safety locks of the window after the young man declared he was fine and going to bed. The inquest heard two gardai, Mr Osman's mother and one of his brothers were with him when he got up and left the room. Garda Murphy said he then heard another of the deceased's brothers who was in the kitchen shouting about Mr Osman's fall from the balcony. In reply to questions from the coroner, Cróna Gallagher, he said he had planned to detain the deceased under the Mental Health Act but was checking with his family as they were unaware about him being on the window sill. He accepted that he had been wrong 'to assume the worst was over.' 'As far as we were concerned, he was safe,' said Garda Murphy. He told the coroner that gardaí were trained to remain calm in dealing with such cases and to try and de-escalate a situation but he did not believe the training was 'sufficient enough.' However, Garda Murphy said gardaí 'don't operate with perfect knowledge and make the best judgement.' A consultant psychiatrist, Prosper Obioha, gave evidence that Mr Osman had been admitted to St Vincent's Hospital for a relapse of paranoid schizophrenia that he had first been diagnosed with in 2018. The inquest heard Ms Osman had mental health issues since he was 15 and also had been treated for substance abuse. Dr Obioha said the deceased had indicated he was suicidal on admission to the hospital on August 24, 2021 but that he subsequently denied having such thoughts during the remainder of his stay. He accepted Mr Osman's family had not been informed about that but he explained there were patient confidentiality issues as well as that it appeared not to be 'an ongoing issue.' The psychiatrist outlined how Mr Osman was discharged on September 20, 2021 after improvements in his health and on condition that he took his medication and stopped using cannabis. Dr Obioha stressed that the patient was not psychotic at the time of discharge, while the medication he was prescribed would not have made his situation worse. The deceased's sister, Nima Osman, told the hearing that it was difficult to speak about her brother, whom she described as one of the bravest, strongest people she knew, in the past tense. However, Ms Osman remarked: 'His mental health battles became too heavy to carry alone.' She told the inquest that her brother loved life but was 'trapped in depression and darkness.' Ms Osman called for greater awareness about mental health issues because of the 'heartbreakingly high' rate of suicide among young men in Ireland. She urged people to be 'more cautious, more human and more aware' with people like her brother. In reply to questions from the coroner, Ms Osman said she had not wanted her brother to be left out of hospital but their mother wanted him home. She said her mother and other family members believed Hassan's condition was due to 'demons and spiritual stuff' while she was trying to explain he had mental health issues. Ms Osman said Hassan her brother was never suicidal but she became more concerned about his wellbeing when he started experiencing 'episodes' when he would hear a female voice telling him to be 'a ninja.' She told the coroner she could not understand why her brother had not been supervised at all times by gardaí if they had assessed the situation as life-threatening and why he was not arrested in the first place. The inquest heard Hassan, Nima and their mother, Nurrto Abdikadir Ahmed, moved to Ireland from Somalia in 2005. Ms Ahmed told the hearing Hassan was her favourite child and how he had a leg amputated following a shooting incident when he was aged 4. She recalled the family had eaten dinner that evening at 8pm before Hassan had gone back to his bedroom. Later she found him with two gardaí in the apartment when she learnt about concerns when he was seen on the window sill. Ms Ahmed said her son walked out of the bedroom before she heard shouting and realised what had happened 'in a blink of an eye.' Ms Ahmed said she did not want any sanction on the gardaí involved as it was 'beyond their control.' 'My son has gone and he's not coming back,' she observed. An officer with Fiosrú – the Office of the Police Ombudsman, Liam Hickey said an investigation had found no breaches of any regulations by gardaí in the eight minutes they had contact with the deceased. Mr Hickey said there were no specific guidelines governing the situation and it was up to individual gardaí to assess how to deal with what they found. Returning a verdict of self-inflicted death, Dr Gallagher said she could not make a finding of death by suicide as it was unclear that Ms Osman was capable of forming the intent to take his own life given his medical history. The coroner offered her condolences to the deceased's relatives on what she described as 'an extremely sad and tragic case.' In the case of an emergency, or if you or someone you know is at risk of suicide or self-harm, dial 999/112.
