Chinese tech giant Huawei has been told it must be ready to defend claims of discrimination and constructive dismissal by a former employee of its Irish arm as early as next month after failing to reach a resolution in talks on Wednesday.
“If you’re missing witnesses, tough, we’re going ahead without them,” an adjudicator told the company’s representatives at a hearing, as he put the matter back.
The Workplace Relations Commission was set to hear statutory complaints against Huawei Technologies (Ireland) Co Ltd by former employee Wei Luo under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, the Payment of Wages Act 1991 and the Employment Equality Act 1998.
When the matter opened an hour and ten minutes later than scheduled at Lansdowne House in Dublin 4, the company’s representative, Daire Ferguson of IBEC, said he wanted an adjournment “as we have a number of witnesses who are unable to attend today”.
When adjudication officer Jim Dolan asked why the witnesses could not attend, Mr Ferguson said: “We had hopes that through discussions with the complainant we would come to a resolution of the matter. However, that did not work out.”
Ms Luo’s representative, Ming Hui Lin, indicated that his side was ready to proceed.
Mr Ferguson said he intended to call three witnesses: Ms Luo’s former line manager, an employee of the firm’s human resources department, and a current employee “who can give evidence of the respondent’s policies in regard to equality and inclusion”.
Ms Luo questioned the relevance of the witnesses and asked: “[Were] they all working during my time in Huawei?”
Mr Ferguson said the third proposed witness had been, but that he would have to confirm whether the other two were.
Seamus Collins, Huawei’s in-house legal counsel, then spoke up and said: “They’re witnesses we’re calling. We think they’re of value.”
Mr Dolan asked the complainant side whether they would be producing any witnesses in addition to the complainant herself.
Ms Luo said: “No, we don’t have a witness, but all the physical documents will tell you a lot.”
The adjudicator granted the respondent’s application for an adjournment and said that the parties would receive notice of the next hearing date from the WRC, which would “probably be towards the end of April”.
Mr Lin, for the complainant, said his side had already attended the WRC for an earlier hearing, “took time out from work” to attend again today, and had been “preparing for this hearing for some time”.
Mr Dolan said: “I want to make myself very, very clear. We’re going to adjourn to another day. If we adjourn, we’re going ahead the next day.”
He told the Huawei team: “If you’re missing witnesses, tough, we’re going ahead without them. When we do get another day, I will hear the case. If that takes five, six, seven hours, I will hear it.”
The exact details of Ms Luo’s complaints were not disclosed during a short hearing today, except that Mr Dolan noted that she was alleging constructive dismissal.
