Sacked Lidl manager loses claim over dismissal

A Lidl manager who was sacked after making a remark about the suitability of a female employee for warehouse work has lost a challenge to his dismissal.

Gabor Hoff, an employee of Lidl Ireland Gmbh since 2008, was dismissed from his job as deputy logistics manager at the supermarket group's regional distribution centre in Charleville, Co Cork, on 16 December 2022 and brought a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.

At the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the supermarket said Mr Hoff had remarked to two female workers "to the effect [that] women should not work in the distribution centre and [that] he does not hire women".

It happened on 20 October 2022 after a female colleague pulled a muscle in her leg while working in the warehouse, the tribunal heard.

Lidl’s management told the tribunal that Mr Hoff was already on a final written warning for making "suggestive comments" to female staff – and had been on a training course about dignity at work just weeks earlier.

Logistics manager Janice O’Connell said an agency worker, identified only as "Ms A" in a tribunal decision published today (TUES), reported Mr Hoff to her on 2 November 2022 as having stated that the warehouse "was not a place for females to work as the work was too heavy" and that he "didn’t hire females for that reason".

Ms A was "visibly upset" and made a written statement, as did a second colleague who was there at the time, she said. Mr Hoff’s response when they were put to him was that he "couldn’t remember saying such a thing" but that he "didn’t mean any offence" if he did, Ms O’Connell said.

Ms O’Connell said Ms A was "visibly upset and had tears in her eyes" when they spoke.

Mr Hoff said in evidence to the tribunal that the remarks were taken out of context and disputed that the remarks upset Ms A.

He said in his evidence that female staff assigned to handling slabs of beer the day before "found it too heavy and complained". His position was that he not believe the statements against him to be "100% accurate" and thought that there had been a "misunderstanding".

He told the WRC he did not say he "wouldn’t employ women" but that he "didn’t believe a picking job was ideal for women because it was too physical".

Under cross-examination by Lidl employee relations manager Scott Jevons, Mr Hoff stated that he told Ms O’Connell he could not remember making the statements because he "had a feeling he was being targeted"

Before the WRC, Mr Hoff accepted that he "could remember the interaction" but "not fully, and that he had "owned up" to the statement at the disciplinary hearing which followed.

Lidl’s appointed disciplinary officer, logistics director John Hasson, gave evidence that he preferred the statements of the two women to Mr Hoff’s. He took the view that the complainant had a "track record" and that there had been a "breakdown in trust" in deciding to dismiss rather than demoting him or extending his final written warning.

Counsel for Mr Hoff, John Monaghan BL, instructed by solicitor Michael O’Donnell, argued that Ms A, the subject of the remarks, "never stated that she was offended" and that Lidl was "moving the goalposts" to argue the comments were inappropriate for a manager.

In his decision, published this morning, adjudicator David James Murphy wrote that it was "entirely reasonable" to infer Ms A was offended since she had made a formal complaint.

He considered on review of the disciplinary process correspondence that Mr Hoff was on notice that "the comments in [and] of themselves were unacceptable to the respondent".

He added that as Mr Hoff was on the warning for other "inappropriate gender-related comments" and had only recently done dignity at work training, he was satisfied dismissal was one of the reasonable responses open to an employer in the circumstances.

He dismissed the claim as "not well founded".