This article is from page 14 of the 2009-09-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
A CLARE shop owner, whose busi- ness was closed down because of a decision of An Bord Pleandala, had to make all his staff redundant including a woman on maternity EA or
Cheryl Kilmartin, from Kilna- soolagh Park, Newmarket-On- Fergus, took an appeal under the Redundancy Payments Act to the Employment Appeals Tribunal af- ter being let go by David Crimmins, of Newmarket-On-Fergus.
Ms Kilmartin gave evidence to the Tribunal that she started working in Mr Crimmins shop in September 2005. She took maternity leave on September 5, 2007. She completed the relevant form for this leave and stated her date of return to work as
March 5, 2008. In the interim the shop closed down on the October me
The owner had informed the em- ployees some time previously that the shop would close but he did not know on what date.
Mr Crimmins told the Tribunal that An Bord Pleanala overturned a planning decision granted to him by the county council. As a result he was instructed to close down his business until he succeeded in se- curing planning permission.
When the business closed all of the employees were made redun- dant. Due to financial difficulties Mr Crimmins was not able to pay redundancy.
The Tribunal awarded the shop worker redundancy lump sum pay- ment under the Act.