WRC told RNLI regards Ireland with âcontemptâ
The Royal National Lifeboat Institutionâs former top manager in Ireland says staff at its UK headquarters regard Ireland with âignoranceâ and âcontemptâ and treated it as a âpoor relationâ during his tenure.
He also said the RNLI was a âgovernance basket caseâ, with kit not being issued on time and training running out â leaving volunteers putting to sea with out-of-date qualifications.
SeĂĄn Dillon said it was âsymbolic of the contempt towards Ireland as a region in the RNLIâ that it had failed to attend yesterdayâs Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) hearing into his complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.
He has accused the RNLI of sacking him in an unfair redundancy before installing a manager from the charityâs headquarters in Poole in England as its Irish regional head.
The former Army captain said this came after âpushbackâ from RNLI headquarters staff in Poole in Dorset to a decentralisation plan he and other regional managers put together for the charityâs new chief executive, Mark Dowie, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The plan was to give more autonomy to regional managers and devolve functions such as fundraising, HR and corporate governance. Poole, which Mr Dillon said was regarded as âfatâ and a âbottleneckâ by Mr Dowie, was to be redesignated âfrom headquarters to a âsupport centreââ, which he said was âlike asking turkeys to vote for Christmasâ.
The complainant said he had to stop fundraising material going out to Irish households with the British queenâs picture and the pound sterling symbol but that there was resistance to devolving fundraising. Mr Dillon also said that Irish donors would hand over cheques with a view to them going to Irish lifeboat stations, but they would instead be sent to the UK and âgo into an account foreverâ.
Put on notice
As decentralisation progressed in 2021, he found out he would have to interview for a job he said he was already doing, he said. Then he was put on notice that he was at risk of redundancy, as were others at his grade and some staff in Poole, Mr Dillon said.âI felt there was a lot of shenanigans going on,â he said.
The adjudicating officer, Eileen Campbell started the hearing an hour past the hearingâs start time yesterday, having satisfied herself the charity was on notice.
Ms Campbell closed the hearing to consider her decision.
A lot of âhe saidâ 'she said '⊠But itâs great to see @Funtime vindicated. @backinatracksuit and @Tank must feel very sheepish after reading that.
I come from a long line of people whoâve made their living from the sea, Iâve had a number of ancestors perish in the sea, the father of one of my best pals growing up drowned in the harbour while he was in utero
I support saving lives at sea, you lot are so bitter you canât see beyond the R
Are you gonna get out of your cosy bed, you are in your fuck
Ive been up since 6.50am pal.
And you seem to forget i gave two years service to the armed forces. What have you done?
And no one is against saving lives
TNEH
Well
Well
Well
Scum
BBC2 now is with the lads in the south East
RNLI told to pay âŹ30,000 to former officer
STEPHEN BOURKE
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was âunfair and disrespectfulâ to a former Irish Army captain who was made redundant and told a UK manager would be appointed to the job he had been doing.
A Workplace Relations Commission adjudicating officer found it âextraordinaryâ the RNLI thought a head office policy and fundraising officer was a better fit than SeĂĄn Dillion for the âfrontline operational roleâ as head of region for Ireland.
The commission upheld Mr Dillonâs claim under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against the sea rescue charity and ordered it to pay him âŹ30,000 in compensation on top of the lump sum redundancy payment he received.
At a hearing last month, Mr Dillon said the charityâs failure to attend to answer his statutory complaint was symbolic âof the ignorance or contemptâ towards Ireland as a region in the RNLI.
He told the hearing that the RNLI was a âgovernance basket caseâ and said Irish donors would hand over cheques with a view to them going to Irish lifeboat stations, but they would instead be sent to the UK and âgo into an account foreverâ.
The complainant said he had to stop fundraising material going out to Irish households marked with Queen Elizabeth IIâs picture and the pound sterling symbol and that there was particular resistance to devolving fundraising. Mr Dillion maintained he was unfairly selected for redundancy from his position and was denied an interview for the head of region role replacing it.
As decentralisation progressed in 2021, he found out he would have to interview for a job as head of region in Ireland, which he said he was already doing. He was then put on notice that he was at risk of redundancy. At redundancy consultation meetings which followed, he learned his bosses regarded the new head of region positions to be more senior, though he held there were no significant differences from his job description.
The tribunal made a finding Mr Dillon was assured at first the Ireland head of region role was still available for him, but by the end of the notice period he was told the job was âgoneâ and that the UK manager, who had been facing redundancy herself, had âsecured that roleâ as a suitable alternative for her own position.
This contradicts a lot of the accusations in this thread over the last few years . Iâm feeling all sorts of emotion with this. Too much he said she said. @Funtime bellend may clear some of it up for me.
Who the fuck are you?
Oh wait, perhaps Mr. Dillon aka (@Funtime ) canât post in here anymore under the terms of the 30k settlement⊠
Tragedy