A scientist at an artificial intelligence skincare research company has won orders for €11,500 on top of a statutory redundancy lump sum after she returned to work from maternity leave to find her workplace had closed.
Aoife McHugh, a former employee of Rinocloud Limited, established her entitlement to statutory redundancy and won awards for nonpayment of wages and breaches of the working time legislation in a decision published by the Workplace Relations Commission – but failed to establish that she was discriminated against.
She had argued the firm had treated her less favourably in connection with her maternity leave – after it made termination payments to her colleagues when they were let go, but gave her nothing for her statutory entitlements.
Ms McHugh was a senior scientist earning €60,000 at the company, which was reportedly developing AI technology to allow for the testing of skincare products on a lab-grown simulation of human skin rather than on animals before it closed in 2023.
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Her case was that she started a period of maternity leave on February 20th, 2023, and was due back on November 6th that year.
Ms McHugh’s evidence to the WRC was that she was given a “redundancy warning” on February 23rd. She was also advised that she would be given a month’s minimum notice pay, along with payment in lieu for outstanding statutory leave entitlements at the point of termination, she told the WRC.
There was “no payment for any of these” to her, even though her colleagues “did receive their entitlements”, she stated.
Ms McHugh said she remained in contact with her employer all through her maternity leave until just two weeks before she was meant to return to work in November 2023.
“All contact ceased,” she told the tribunal in her evidence, and she found that she was “locked out” of company IT systems and that her place of work was closed.
She told the WRC that her employer had agreed the redundancy warning of February 23rd was “void” since she was on maternity leave.
WRC adjudicator Patsy Doyle noted that no representative of the company attended a remote hearing into the complaints on December 4th.
Ms Doyle noted that the Maternity Protection Act made any “purported termination” during protective leave “void” and determined for the purposes of the calculation of statutory redundancy that Ms McHugh’s correct termination date was the date she was due back from maternity leave.
In her decision, she rejected Ms McHugh’s pregnancy discrimination claim under the Employment Equality Act 1998 on the basis that it appeared the company had closed “due to financial difficulties”.
She awarded Ms McHugh statutory redundancy on the basis of service from September 2021 to November 2023 and wages exceeding the weekly cap of €600. Based on the statutory formula, the redundancy lump sum is worth in the region of €3,000.
Ms Doyle also awarded Ms McHugh €5,000 for a month’s pay in lieu of notice under the Payment of Wages Act 1991, and a €6,500 in compensation for breaches of the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 in the failure to pay the complainant in lieu for accrued annual leave and public holiday entitlements on termination.
