L0EL001 Diploma assessment Spring 2020

Assessment question

Jeff Malcolm is a Jamaican national and was an employee of Super Dealz supermarket from 2012 until recently. He was employed in the fresh food section of the chain’s Shrewsbury Street branch. When he started work as a fresh-faced graduate, his manager was Dewey Black. Jeff had a very good relationship with Dewey, who was always more than satisfied with the quality of Jeff’s work. Jeff was given additional responsibilities, including being promoted to the position of supervisor over some employees working in the fresh food section.

However, in January 2019, Dewey was transferred to another branch of the supermarket chain, and he was replaced by Meryl Priestly. Almost immediately, Jeff began to have difficulties under Meryl’s management. She repeatedly reprimanded Jeff for chatting on the aisles, even though other staff would be continuously and more loudly chatting and joking while stocking shelves. On various occasions throughout 2019, Meryl yelled at Jeff to ‘shut up and do some work’ in front of the staff he was supervising and in front of the customers. Jeff felt humiliated and was close to tears at such a public undermining. Since June 2019, Jeff has been rostered to work three out of every four Sundays. When Dewey was manager, Jeff tended to only work one in four Sundays. He feels Meryl is doing this deliberately to upset him, as she knows that he has Reggae practice on Sundays.

Jeff felt personally victimised by Meryl and suspected that her behaviour towards him was because of his nationality. All of the other employees in the fresh food section of the shop are Irish nationals. Jeff began to dread coming to work and on occasion experienced what he thought were panic attacks in the mornings at the thought of how Meryl might treat him that day.

By letter dated 15 September 2019, Jeff wrote to the human resources manager, Amanda Smith, stating that he felt he was being bullied and harassed by Meryl and seeking his employer’s assistance. In his letter, he stated that he felt he would have no choice but to quit his job if Meryl’s behaviour towards him was not addressed. He said that after 7 years’ loyal service with Super Dealz, he would hate to go because of the xenophobic attitude of one person, but he could no longer bear Meryl’s undermining of him. Jeff received no response to his letter. He was aware that there was a formal grievance procedure contained in his employee handbook, but he didn’t use it because he felt there was no point when Super Dealz hadn’t even answered his letter.

On 20 December 2019, Meryl approached Jeff as he was stacking crates of vegetables and shouted loudly, “tie away those disgusting dreadlocks Jeff, no respectable Irishman wants to see those near his vegetables”. It is company policy that employees must wear hairnets when working on the deli counters, but there is no requirement that they tie up their hair while working in the vegetable section. Jeff was extremely upset by this incident and hoped that he would have a response from senior management soon.

In February 2020, Jeff felt he could no longer take Meryl’s treatment and he went on sick leave for a week. He was certified by his doctor as unfit for work due to work-related stress. His sick leave was extended for another 2 weeks, again on the basis of workplace stress. On 7 March 2020, Jeff wrote to the HR manager handing in his notice “due to workplace bullying” with immediate effect. On 8 March 2020, Amanda Smith replied to Jeff accepting his resignation without enquiring into the reasons for his resignation or asking about his welfare.

Jeff feels he has been very badly treated by Super Dealz. Advise Jeff as to:

(a) whether he has a cause of action for harassment under the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015, his likely prospects of success if he was to institute proceedings, where such a claim can be made, and whether there are any defences Super Dealz could rely on in this regard;

(b) whether Jeff has a cause of action for personal injuries arising from workplace bullying and/or stress, his likely prospects of success if he was to institute proceedings, and where such a claim can be made;

(c) whether he has a cause of action for constructive dismissal under the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977-2015, his likely prospects of success if he was to institute proceedings, and where such a claim can be made.

You should refer to relevant statutory provisions, case law and previous decision of employment law decision-making bodies to back up the points made in your answer. Please provide full citations for all authorities relied upon. Remember to apply the legal principles you identify to the particular facts of Jeff’s case.

Maximum word count: 2,500 words. Please also include a bibliography of authorities cited. This is not included in the word count.

Assessment criteria

General Assessment Requirements for Students:

1. A proportion of assessment marks is allocated to presentation. All assignments must be word-processed, with word count noted unless otherwise stated by the lecturer.

2. Where a hardcopy submission is required, an Assignment Submission Form must be securely attached to each submission.

3. All assignments must be submitted no later than the stated deadline.

• • Assignments submitted after the latest deadline (date and time) specified, including any extension, are deemed to be ‘late’ and are penalised, as follows:
    • Where the assignment is submitted not more than seven working days after the latest specified date, the mark awarded to the assignment is reduced by 25%.
    • Where the assignment is submitted more than seven working days after the latest specified date, it is awarded a mark of zero
    • Where the assessment is undertaken in a group, the piece of work should be submitted in its complete entirety, and any penalty for late submission incurred applies to all group members.

4. All relevant provisions of the Assessment Regulations must be complied with.

5. Extensions to assignment submission deadlines will be not be granted, other than in exceptional circumstances. To apply for an extension please go to http://www.dbs-students.com/Registrar/ and download the Assignment Extension Request Form.  Once completed this form should then be returned to your Programme Leader, for approval.

6. Students are required to retain a copy of each assignment submitted, and the submission receipt (If a physical submission is required) until the issuing of a transcript indicating the mark awarded.

7. Assignments must be appropriately packaged and presented.

8. Where a submission involves digital media, it is the submitting students’ responsibility to ensure the media is appropriately labelled, fully working and they must retain a copy.

9. Assignments that breach the word count requirements will be penalised. There is a 10% discretion, either way, applicable in terms of word count.

10. Students are required to refer to the assessment regulations in their Student Guides and on the Student Website.

11. Dublin Business School penalises students who engage in academic impropriety (i.e. plagiarism, collusion and/or copying).

12. Students may use the OSCOLA style of referencing or any other form of referencing students are comfortable with. OSCOLA Style Referencing Guide is available here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3KDqM9B-CIkZDBiNjFkZWYtOTVjMC00YzVlLWIwOWMtNTViZjIyZjAwYWY4/edit?pli=1

(Guide on referencing is also available under DBS library guides at www.library.dbs.ie)

13. In relation to electronic submissions:

1. All assignments should be submitted to your subject/course page on Moodle by the deadline date.
2. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure their file is uploaded correctly.
3. When an assignment is submitted, it is the student’s responsibility to ensure that the file is in the correct format and opens correctly.
4. When you submit your assignment you will be asked to click on a button which will declare the following:

By submitting this assignment I confirm that I am aware of DBS’s policy regarding cheating, plagiarism and all other forms of academic impropriety.  The coursework submitted is my own or my group’s work, and all other sources consulted have been appropriately acknowledged.   I am aware that in the case of doubt an investigation will be held.

Include an electronic cover sheet with the following details to the front of the assignment:

Electronic Assignment Cover sheet

Please fill out and attach as the first page of Assignment.

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Note:    Technical support is available to student between 0930- 1700 hrs only.  There is no technical support after 1700 hrs. It is your responsibility to ensure that you allow time to troubleshoot any technical difficulties by uploading early on the due date.