A Ukrainian trucker who made court history by giving evidence at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) remotely from an “active battlefield” has won €3,500 for unfair dismissal and other employment rights breaches.
The worker, Ruslan Rybak, was serving in the Ukrainian military at the time of his most recent hearing.
An adjudicating officer found that Mr Rybak’s employment relationship was almost ‘Wild West’ in character, with the complainant, who had lived in his truck cab to avoid paying rent, working for months and years at a time before returning to Ukraine.
Mr Rybak told the tribunal that he was sacked by Dublin haulier Noel Hughes “without any procedures or right of appeal” on 1 July 2020 following a verbal exchange with a customer earlier that day.
Mr Rybak’s case was that he was “constantly under work pressure” at the time, with “long work periods that necessitated sleeping in the truck for over a year”.
On the day he lost his job, the customer “kept ringing him on his mobile” about delivery times, he told the WRC.
He replied that he was not “driving a rocket” and a “testy exchange” followed, a tribunal adjudicator recorded in a summary of Mr Rybak’s evidence.
Mr Hughes’ position was that Mr Rybak had a habit of leaving the job “abruptly” to go home to Ukraine.
The employer called Mr Rybak “an excellent heavy truck driver who generally worked without complaint” and said he had re-hired him each time he came back.
In addition to his claim under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, Mr Rybak’s advocate, Marius Marosan, argued that the employer was also in breach of the Organisation of Working Time Act; the European Communities (Road Transport) (Organisation of Working Time of Persons Performing Mobile Road Transport Activities) Regulations 2012, and the Payment of Wages Act 1991.
Mr Rybak’s evidence was that he got “no proper breaks”, had to “eat and sleep in the truck cabin” and “sometimes had to work 100 hours non-stop”.
In response, Mr Hughes produced employment relation documents, tachograph records, and a letter from the WRC’s inspectors.
He said Mr Rybak lived “completely voluntarily” in the truck cabin and took showers at an Irish Cement site. The worker had turned down offers of accommodation as Mr Rybak “did not wish to pay any rent”.
Mr Marosan also submitted that the employer was in breach of the Payment of Wages Act 1991 by failing to pay his client in lieu for working public holidays, though it was conceded that a premium had been paid for Sunday work.
In his decision, adjudicator Michael McEntee wrote that Mr Rybak had clearly built up “quite a head of steam” before meeting his employer in the yard, and a “salty exchange” ensued with his employer.
“To be fair, he had been driving a large truck all day,” Mr McEntee remarked.
He concluded that there most likely was a dismissal, and remarked that an on-the-spot dismissal was a “non-runner”.
However, he wrote that the actions of the employer had to be “heavily discounted” by Mr Rybak’s actions, as well as his previous record of leaving at short notice.
Deciding that Mr Rybak was 50% responsible for his dismissal, Mr McEntee awarded him €2,000 under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977.
Addressing the working time complaints, Mr McEntee said it would require “very extensive forensic analysis by tachograph experts” to address the contest over these records.
“It was clear the overall employment relationship was quite irregular, almost ‘Wild West’ in character, with the complainant working for a few months, even years, and then disappearing,” adjudicator Michael McEntee wrote in his decision.
“His family were home in the Ukraine. He clearly wished to reside in the truck cab to avoid paying rent, it appears,” the adjudicator noted.
“He obviously wished to work to the maximum amount possible and was not particularly interested in breaks, etc, as he had, by his own choice, no domestic life in Ireland,” Mr McEntee added.
He wrote that he was making a “Judgment of Solomon” in the case to the effect that Mr Rybak should receive “a round sum of €1,000” comprising €250 for four breaches of working time legislation, which he had upheld on the balance of probabilities.
Mr McEntee also noted that Mr Rybak was serving in the Ukrainian military at the time of the most recent hearing.
He remarked that it was “probably the first instance of witness evidence being received from an active battlefield” in WRC history.
He also directed that Mr Rybak be paid a lump sum of €500 “in lieu of bank holiday and public holiday payments”, bringing the total awards in the dispute to €3,500.
