{"id":38944,"date":"2026-04-28T23:22:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T03:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/04\/28\/pharma-firm-told-irish-jobs-safe-before-redundancies\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T23:22:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T03:22:55","slug":"pharma-firm-told-irish-jobs-safe-before-redundancies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/04\/28\/pharma-firm-told-irish-jobs-safe-before-redundancies\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharma firm told Irish jobs ‘safe’ before redundancies"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A former senior manager at a multinational pharma firm says she was told she could reassure her staff in Ireland they were “safe” when job cuts were announced – only to find her own role was on the line a week later.<\/p>\n

In a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against Accord Healthcare Ireland Ltd, Tracey Kivlehan is challenging the termination of her employment in 2024 on the stated basis of redundancy at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).<\/p>\n

Ms Kivlehan lost her \u20ac90,000-a-year job as head of hospitals and speciality brands at Accord in October 2024 after a decade at the business.<\/p>\n

She told the WRC her redundancy from the business development role followed an “attack” on her abilities by the company’s managing director in Ireland when she asked for a pay rise and ended up on a coaching plan.<\/p>\n

MD Padraig O’Brien said in evidence to the WRC that Accord’s focus since setting up here in 2008 was generic, off-patent and “biosimilar” medicines.<\/p>\n

However, the multinational’s leadership decided in 2023 that it would change course towards “pioneering patented products” under a five-year plan to diversify the business, Mr O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

Accord decided to merge Ms Kivlehan’s job with a vacant marketing post to create one job for a candidate with “sufficient clinical knowledge” for this new endeavour, he said.<\/p>\n

On 17 September 2024, the tribunal heard, a company vice president announced that there would be “a limited number of redundancies” across the Europe, Middle East and North Africa (EMENA) region.<\/p>\n

Counsel for the complainant, Thea Kennedy BL, instructed by Crushell & Co, put it to Mr O’Brien in cross-examination that her client would say she was told “Ireland would be safe” when the redundancies were announced.<\/p>\n

He decided to “keep the team calm and tell them they weren’t to be impacted, and I would pick up the conversations as subtly as possible with those who were being impacted,” he said.<\/p>\n

Ms Kennedy put it to him it would have come as a surprise to those staff facing redundancy “after being told Ireland was safe”.<\/p>\n

“Irrespective of any prior conversation, it was a shock for her,” Mr O\u2019Brien said of a meeting with Ms Kivlehan a week later, when she was put on notice her job was at risk.<\/p>\n

In her own evidence, Ms Kivlehan told the WRC her area of business was performing strongly and had exceeded financial targets by “double-digit percentages” when in early 2024, when she approached Mr O’Brien in February to ask about a pay rise.<\/p>\n

Ms Kivlehan had scored three out of five in her 2023 performance rating, when she had medical absences for a surgery, the hearing was told.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien’s response, after asking her to set out her case in writing, was to tell her that he was “struggling to rate me three and that I was going to be a two” in 2024 Ms Kivlehan said.<\/p>\n

“I was a bit blindsided. I was then told I would be doing a development plan and a call would be scheduled with HR,” she said.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien\u2019s account of this was: “I made it clear, actually Tracey, you know, while you think you should be rewarded more than currently, I felt I wasn’t getting a performance that was getting my and the business’s performance expectation at that time.”<\/p>\n

“Tracey was upset about that frank discussion,”he said, but added that Ms Kivlehan worked towards the tasks that were set and “mbraced that process”<\/p>\n

His evidence was that it was “an informal process” for staff to “upskill” rather than a “formal performance process”.<\/p>\n

He said the development process was concluded to his satisfaction in August or September, having been extended due to a medical absence for Ms Kivlehan in July 2024, with the “development gaps” closed up.<\/p>\n

Ms Kivlehan said she considered this process “an attack on my ability” based on what she considered to be “unfair” assertions about her performance, which she set out in detail.<\/p>\n

Ms Kivlehan said she did not know how the development process was resolved. “I don’t know, it just sort of filtered out. I don’t recall a situation where it was done, closed and we can sign off and everything’s finished,” she said.<\/p>\n

She said that when the redundancies were announced, senior managers in the Irish arm of the firm were told at a meeting “we could tell our teams Ireland was safe”.<\/p>\n

Early the following week, Ms Kivlehan was called to a meeting with Mr O\u2019Brien and the company\u2019s regional HR director, Dirghayu “DB” Buch, at a hotel, the hearing was told.<\/p>\n

“I was told that Ireland wasn’t safe, basically, and my position was being made redundant, and I was asked if I had anything to say that could save my position,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They said to me I could go forward for that new position,” Ms Kivlehan said. She said she put it to them that from what she was being told, she didn’t have the required skill-set and if she went for it, she “wouldn\u2019t be considered”.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s when DB told me: “That\u2019s a fair assessment.”<\/p>\n

Under examination by Mary Fay BL, who was instructed by DLA Piper for the company, Mr Buch denied saying this in his evidence and said there was no such discussion. “I completely dispute that comment,” he said.<\/p>\n

Ms Kivlehan’s role was one of three positions eliminated in the firm’s Irish arm – one of which was already vacant, he said.<\/p>\n

Mr O’Brien said Ms Kivlehan “didn\u2019t put herself forward” for the new role incorporating her former job during the redundancy consultation process. The complainant said she never received the job description.<\/p>\n

Adjudication officer \u00dana Glazier-Farmer has adjourned the matter until later in the year.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former senior manager at a multinational pharma firm says she was told she could reassure her staff in Ireland they were “safe” when job cuts were announced – only to find her own role was on the line a week later. In a complaint under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 against Accord Healthcare Ireland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}