Fifteen drivers and assistants were terminated in bulk after being the subject of a secret surveillance operation by Diageo security officers at a pub in Dublin’s north-east inner city between December 2018 and March 2019. Shannon Warehousing and Transport Ltd, trading as STL Logistics, the brewery’s delivery subcontractor, disputed the drivers’ actions which resulted in more than thirty kegs being delivered to the pub on twenty different occasions without authorisation. HR expert, Brendan McCarthy of Stratis Consulting, told the tribunal that STL Logistics interviewed seventy delivery customers, none of whom could “justify or explain why Guinness trucks were stopping at that pub.”
After disciplinary hearings and investigation meetings, eleven of the fifteen workers were dismissed in July 2019, with their appeals subsequently rejected. However, the tribunal later found that the workers had not committed gross misconduct and were unfairly dismissed. Adjudicating Officer Andrew Heavey upheld the complaints made by the workers and awarded sums between €2,320 and €21,000 each as compensation under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977. Two former drivers who made claims against the company had their complaints dismissed.
