A Kilkenny nursing home director once again failed to appear at an Employment Appeals Tribunal in Kilkenny to offer any defence in a case involving staff at the home.
A mother and daughter who were employed by the nursing home are subsequently to be awarded compensation after they detailed a litany of bullying and name-calling by Avondale Nursing Home boss Miriam Holmes.
Mary Dunne and her daughter Erica (23 ), both from Callan, Co Kilkenny, told the Employment Appeals Tribunal at Kilkenny Rivercourt Hotel that they were "constantly bullied", and that they felt that they were forced into leaving their jobs at the Avondale Nursing Home in Callan.
The tribunal heard that the defence failed to turn up this time and also on two previous occasions to offer defence in the case. The tribunal was also told that on this occasion Ms Holmes and her daughter were in Australia since last week ‘on a family matter’.
Five other former employees at Avondale Nursing Home have also lodged cases with the tribunal, including claims for unfair dismissal and constructive dismissal against the privately owned nursing home. They are being represented by trade union SIPTU.
Tribunal chairperson Kate O'Mahony on Tuesday automatically found that the mother and daughter had been constructively dismissed after Ms Holmes failed to appear at the Tribunal on three separate occasions.
A decision on compensation for Mary and Erica Dunne will be made at a later date.
In a separate issue an elderly man, who had Alzheimer's and cancer, died at the home in 2005 just weeks after he was strapped to a chair and sustained severe burns from a radiator
