Seamus McGranaghan qualified as a Solicitor in O'Reilly Stewart Solicitors in 2003 and is an experienced Commercial Lawyer dealing with employment, commercial and education cases.
He has experience in the Industrial Tribunal representing both Claimants and Respondents and has provided seminars in relation to particular areas of employment law. Seamus is the only member of the Education and Law Association in Northern Ireland. He specialises in advising schools and colleges on policy matters, employment issues and student welfare. He is also responsible for the Education Law Quarterly Review.
In addition to having contributed at Legal Island’s Education Updates since 2010, Seamus in association with Legal Island provides a live “Employment Law @ 11” webinar on the first Friday of each month, dealing with all aspects of Employment law affecting Northern Irish employers.
If someone reports a Christmas party incident but the victim doesn't want to complain formally, how strong is the case for doing nothing?
Seamus: Well, I do think that there is a time and there is a circumstance where you maybe have somebody that doesn't want to engage. There may be very personal reasons for that, and there's an element that you do have to respect the wishes of an individual employee, particularly where you would worry that pursuing an investigation might result ultimately in damage to their safety and their welfare. But I would say that those are at the long end of the scale.
Where these matters are brought to the attention of the employer and the employer becomes aware, there's a duty to investigate and a responsibility to conduct an investigation and get to the bottom of the position, what has happened.
It may be that this person has made it clear that they don't want any action taken, but if it was to happen to another person and you ended up in a tribunal and there was evidence to say, "Well, this was the second occasion and the employer didn't do anything about it on the first occasion", it leaves a clear witness for the employer.
So I think you do have to measure it, but sometimes you just need to be clear with the employee, "That's fine if you don't want to give a statement, but we still need to proceed with an investigation here and ensure that we are protecting all of our staff, our clients, our customers, everybody else that comes in contact with the business".
The other big issue is going to be the reputational damage. If you have a case in the press or a publication from the tribunal in relation to a case, it could result in severe damage right up to the point where a business has to close because the damage is so bad to it.
Christine: So even if you're hitting brick walls, you still need to document your attempts to investigate and at least know you've got that on file. It's a little bit of a safety net should anything else happen.
Seamus: Absolutely.
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