A senior executive ousted from his €160,000-a-year job at a hospitality group has rejected the suggestion his job was no longer needed because its largest Irish hotel had been turned into a direct provision centre.
In a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against Skyline View Ltd, a subsidiary of the JMK Hospitality Group, Mark Langham has alleged he was made redundant as head of operations in Ireland in July 2023 because of a “personality clash” with Sonia Kajani, the daughter of the parent firm’s founder.
The privately-owned firm – described by Ms Kajani as a “small family business” at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Tuesday – has four hotels in Ireland, including the Holiday Inn at Dublin Airport which is currently contracted out to State’s International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) as a direct provision centre for asylum seekers.
The WRC was told that the State’s contract for the group’s largest hotel is worth between €20 million and €23 million a year to the firm.
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Its position is that Mr Langton was made redundant for “financial and operational considerations” and that the process was conducted fairly.
“At the time, interest rates were rising, inflation was at an all-time high, the costs of the business on a day-to-day basis were absolutely through the roof, and the structure of the business was changing as well,” Ms Kajani told a hearing on Tuesday.
Ms Kajani told the tribunal in evidence that the hotel was being used as a direct provision centre already when Mr Langham was hired by the firm in May 2022, but that JMK was not sure how long that contract would last.
However, she said that after the renewal of the contract in early 2023, there were “less operational needs in Ireland”. Since Mr Langham’s salary was the highest of any employee in the group, the witness said it “just made more financial sense to make the role redundant”.
The tribunal was told Mr Langham attended three redundancy process meetings in June 2023 and was due to attend a fourth the following month – but was given notice of dismissal on July 5th.
Ms Kajani said the firm had a UK-based operations manager doing a “very similar” role to the claimant. She said that in considering the question of redundancy, the decision-making directors – herself, her father and brother – had regard to the fact that this man had been with the firm for seven or eight years before the complainant joined and was receiving an £80,000-a-year salary (€96,000), Ms Kajani told the tribunal.
It was “last in, first out”, she said.
Questioned on the UK manager’s responsibilities, Ms Kajani accepted that Mr Langham had responsibility for a greater number of hotel rooms, but said the UK manager had responsibility for a commercial and residential portfolio as well.
Ms Kajani confirmed to Mr Langham’s barrister Ruth McGovern BL, instructed by Crushell & Co Solicitors, that the firm had around 1,000 hotel rooms in Ireland with 500 used for asylum seeker accommodation. In Britain the firm had 181 of its 280 hotel rooms contracted out for direct provision, she added.
“But it’s fair to say Mr Langham was responsible for a considerable amount more hotels and rooms,” Ms McGovern said.
“Yes,” the witness said.
Ms Kajani said she could not remember how much the Holiday Inn direct provision deal with the State was worth but said it would be worth between €20 million and €23 million annually.
In his own evidence, Mr Langton said the company’s Irish operations had €50.5 million in turnover in 2022, with €23 million of that coming from the Dublin Airport Holiday Inn – the “largest amount”, he added.
That price had been agreed through a third-party travel agent which was charging a commission, he said, adding that within a fortnight of starting work for the company he was told by Ms Kajani’s brother and fellow director, Zain Kajani, to “remove that third party and do a direct deal”.
He said it took “a good five months trying to find a contact in the department” but that the deal, when it was closed off in December that year “substantially increased the value of each bedroom” at the hotel.
He added that the company had also been in a position to increase revenue from the direct provision arrangement by installing washing machines and dryers instead of outsourcing laundry.
Mr Langton’s evidence was that the company was “doing well” in December 2022 and was “showing a growth on both the revenue line as well as the Ebitda (interest before tax, depreciation, and amortisation) dark line”. He said it had acquired properties in Dublin and Galway, had started construction on a new project in Cork, and was finalising plans for a further project in Belfast.
Asked by adjudicator John Harraghy why he thought he was made redundant, Mr Langham said: “I think there was probably a personality clash, for that reason. That’s happened before with other individuals in the company… if an individual didn’t sort of fit in and follow, they were asked to move on.”
His evidence was that he had been personally involved in asking people to move on in meetings “on behalf of the owners” on two occasions.
Mr Harraghy then asked Mr Langham with whom he had a personality clash. The claimant replied: “I reported in to one person: Sonia Kajani.”
Relations became “strained” from Christmas 2022 and into 2023, he told Mr Harraghy, referring to “the tone of emails coming through”.
He said that during this time he waited three months for approval on an annual leave request, until the HR manager told him: “Look, no one’s said anything… it’s fine, we all know you’re on holiday.”
He said he then received an email on the first day of his leave stating that it was “unauthorised” – calling the tone of the message “quite upsetting” in view of “all the hard work I was doing”. “I knew from that point something was quite amiss,” he said.
“How do you think the role could have been saved?” Mr Harraghy asked.
“I don’t think they wanted my role saving. I think they just didn’t want me in the business,” Mr Langham said.
After hearing closing submissions from Ms McGovern and the respondent’s representative, Nicola Murphy of Peninsula Business Services, Mr Harraghy has now closed the hearing and is expected to deliver his decision in writing to the parties in due course.
In addition to the Holiday Inn at Dublin Airport, the respondent also has Holiday Inn Express hotel on Dublin’s O’Connell Street, the Hampton by Hilton near the Four Courts in Dublin, and the Marina Hotel in Waterford City, the WRC was told.
